It Started With a Debt
by petpermint
Summary: A fateful encounter with Sting leads to something special! Will they live happily ever after, or will their respective guilds, and a certain fire dragon slayer, interfere with their love? The heart does not have a brain to decide who to love. StingxLucy
1. First Encounter

I have always wanted to write one about Lucy (my favourite character of FT) after reading sooo many FF about her. I saw so many Sting x Lucy recently that this idea popped into my head and I decided to type it out! YAY. HAHA. Let me know what you think, thanks! R&R! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Fairy Tail!

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><p>"Ah," Lucy let out a pleasant sigh as she stretched her limbs, "the Grand Magic Tournament is finally over! I can finally have a good rest!"<p>

"P-Punn!" Plue chimed in.

As much as Lucy was elated to be getting her well-deserved rest, she was saddened by the thought of her guild not making the coveted first place in that tournament. Even though the master had comforted them by saying that second place was a terrific job for a guild that has been at the bottom for the past 7 years, Lucy could tell that even Makarov yearned to be on the top. The margin between Saber Tooth and Fairy Tail was far too large. If only Raven Claw did not interfere with them every time, they could have at least a chance. Raven Claw was now no more and there was nobody to blame except for themselves for having so many openings. Makarov, unable to withstand the treatment of Raven Claw towards his precious children, confronted his son and his guild, resulting in a huge fight. Raven Claw was strong, they couldn't have expected anything lesser from Makarov's son, but as you know, a Fairy Tail mage never gives up, no matter the odds. Furthermore, they have had experience with the nearly unbeatable Hades. The only thing that made the fight harder was the fact that Ivan was Makarov's own blood, but the defeat of Ivan was taken care of by Makarov and Laxus, with some help from Natsu who could not stand the sight of his guild master being disrespected by anyone. Raven Claw, Lucy scoffed to herself, was nothing compared to Grimoire Heart. Lucy shuddered, not wanting to think of that dark guild any longer. She still gets nightmares about her tiny head in Kain's gigantic hand, waiting to be crushed like a flour bomb.

As she balanced herself on the edge of the pathway like she does every evening, she thought about Saber Tooth. Like dragon slayers weren't rare enough, that guild has two, two very powerful ones. Not that she was in any position to say that, considering that her guild has three, but the ones in Saber Tooth were true dragon slayers. They had actually slain a dragon before, albeit they were their own parental dragon. Lucy clenched her fist. Sure, their job description mentions dragon slaying, but how could they be so heartless to kill their own family? Even when her father sent Phantom Lord Guild to destroy her family just so that he could get her back to arrange her marriage with some prince, she didn't even think of killing him! Before she could rant her thoughts to the little white spirit next to her, a person collided straight into her, causing her to lose her footing and slip of the pavement. Lucy gave a short squeal and braced the impact of the rough waters of the river below, but it never came. Slowly, she opened her eyes, and then she blinked, and blinked again, not believing her eyes.

She jumped out of the man's arms, which were wrapped around her waist and stood in her fighting stance. One arm in front of her, the other touching her keys.

"What the hell are you doing in Magnolia?" Lucy hissed.

The man in front of her did not reply, instead, he swayed in front of her before stumbling and falling face flat onto the ground.

"E-eh?" the blond stuttered. "Sting? Sting!"

She stared at the lifeless body in front of her and sniffed at the strong pungent smell around. She didn't had to be a dragon slayer to know that he had been drowning himself in alcohol. She let out a long sigh, squatted next to him, pulled one of his arms over her shoulders and dragged him towards her apartment. She contemplated asking the lion spirit to help her but he would probably chide her for helping him and probably make her bring that body to the guild instead. God knows what her family might do to this guy, especially Natsu. Besides, her apartment was nearer.

"That guy is so heavy!" Lucy whined as she threw Sting onto her couch.

The celestial Mage took some time to look at the dragon slayer in front of her. Sting hasn't said a word or moved a muscle since Lucy had found him. Finally, she proceeded to the kitchen to prepare a hot towel and some medicine for the hangover he was sure to have. She placed the towel over Sting's forehead gently as she hummed. It didn't feel quite right, since she was kind of nursing an enemy, but she couldn't help it – Sting looked like a peaceful little kid when he was sleeping like that. Just as soon as she thought that, Sting got up and retched. A smelly yellowish green substance stained her couch and her floor. Lucy covered her nose and looked at the vomit and the cause of it in disgust, and then she cried comically. Stupid me and my stupid mouth that had to jinx everything. Now look at the mess I invited! She thought furiously, resisting the temptation to strangle the unconscious man in front of her.

She stood up and went to her bed, sighing to herself, "I need a break."

She rubbed her temples and rested her eyes, knowing that she shouldn't just leave the stain there, but she really wanted to rest. Soon, darkness overtook her.

When she woke up, Sting was no longer there. Lucy groaned, remembering about the gross-looking liquid she had left that guy with before she had fallen asleep. It would surely smell and probably leave this ugly stain that she would never be able to get rid of. That ingrate, he could have at least- Lucy paused, and took a second look. There wasn't any of that puke on the floor anymore; the only trace of it was a blur stain on the couch. Beneath the glass on the coffee table, there was a note with only four words: thanks and I tried. Lucy nodded, baffled. Just four words and she knew what it meant; she just didn't know that Sting was that kind of person. The kind who would...clean up his own messes.

The incident slipped her mind the next day when Natsu practically dragged her to go to a mission, and Gray and Erza wanted to tag along, of course. The mission was an easy task with a meager reward. Of course, the three teammates of hers decided that there was a need to show off their amazing powers and you know what happens afterwards. Needless to say, the reward went to the town's rebuilding fund. Despite that, Lucy couldn't deny that it was a fun job and it strengthened their bonds as a team.

"Home sweet home!" Lucy cheered. "Let's just hope Natsu and his blue kitty will not crash in here tonight."

"I hope so too," a voice in the darkness said.

"W-who?"

Lucy reached out for her light switch cautiously. When the light was turned on, Lucy came face to face with another blond who sat on the couch smirking.

"Sting! What are you doing here?" she exclaimed, unsure to be feeling threatened by an enemy or to act normal.

"We," he said as he tugged onto Lucy's wrists, "are going out."

"You are noisy, you know that?" Sting commented.

The dragon slayer had dragged the celestial Mage halfway across town to a restaurant with the latter whining and strongly refusing to go with him the whole time.

"I get that a lot," Lucy grinned while admiring the restaurant.

Granted it wasn't a fancy restaurant but it had a homey feeling to it. There weren't many people and the service crew was polite and cheerful. Lucy preferred restaurants like this over fancy, expensive restaurants where you had to be mindful about your behavior at all times. She had enough of those back in the day when she was still an heiress.

"So," Lucy started, breaking the silence between them, "what were you doing in my house without the lights and what are we doing here?"

"To answer the first question, I did turn on the light. I only switched it off when I knew you were coming home."

"How did-," Lucy stopped herself from asking a stupid question, "Oh right, dragon slayer."

"As I was saying, to answer your second question, we are here because I don't like owing people favors. The sooner I'm off your debt, the better."

"What debt?" Lucy asked, confused.

Sting gave the girl a knowing look and the girl exclaimed, "Oh! If you meant the time when you were found drunk, it's okay. I figured your so called 'debt' has already been paid when you tried to do some damage control. But I don't get one thing." Lucy looked at Sting who nodded for her to continue, "How did you know I was returning today? Surely you can't smell me when I'm in the train far away from here?"

Sting smirked as he placed an elbow on the table and supported his head with it, "I didn't. I mean, I didn't know when you were returning. I've been loitering in your apartment for the whole week you've been gone. Man, what a nice place you have and I heard the rent is dirt cheap! Fitting for someone as poor as you, seeing how your guild's notice board is rumored to be one of the emptiest."

"Are you serious?" Lucy deadpanned, ignoring the insults that he had thrown at her and her guild. "You've been there every single day?"

Sting nodded as he flipped through the menu.

"Don't you have any jobs to take on? I'm pretty sure a guild like Saber Tooth would have many missions on their board. Plus, where is your kitty cat? I thought all dragon slayers have an exceed. And for your information, ever since we won second place at that tournament, our notice board has been breaming with requests."

"That's right, second place," Sting emphasized before answering Lucy's previous question, his eyes not leaving the menu. "Lector is with Rogue. I told them I was on a solo mission."

Sting ordered steak while Lucy ordered fish and chips. Their dinner was awkward, at least for the celestial mage, while Sting looked like he wasn't as bothered about the silence as the girl was. When they were done with their food, they decided to sit for a while more, this time, in a more comfortable silence. Lucy smiled to herself. Despite the first impressions Sting had on her, she was enjoying his company more than she had expected.

"Why did you do it?" Sting asked suddenly, breaking Lucy thoughts.

"Do what?"

"Help me when I was drunk. I'm your enemy. Normal people don't help their enemies."

"Well," Lucy thought for a while, "I'm a Fairy Tail mage, aren't I? We are not normal. Plus, I would never live with myself if I left a helpless person by the road. And why would you think we are enemies? We were rivals in the tournament, but now? Not so much as friends, more like acquaintances that don't really get along with each other. But after this dinner, it might change."

Sting stared intensely at Lucy, unsure of what he was feeling when she made her mini speech. He had walked Lucy back home afterwards, much to his and the girl's surprise. A gentlemanly gesture, Lucy noted, how unlike his bad boy looks. The grin never left her face, she realized, while walking halfway. She felt her face heat up as she thought about how happy she was. If Natsu knew that she had gone on a date with Sting, she would never hear the end of it. Date? What Date? She screamed inwardly. This was a thank you dinner! Not a date!

While Lucy was fighting with herself, Sting was staring at the blond girl, amused. He wondered why he was walking that girl home. He stared at the girl some more. She did have a damsel in distress look the first time he saw her with Natsu, but seeing her in the tournament with Flare changed that image. Granted she lost the match, but anybody with eyes could see how strong that celestial wizard was. Those who jeered were idiots not to see how amazing her magic was. Were they blind as well? Could they not see the ten golden keys hanging off her belt, and weren't there only twelve of those on Earthland? A celestial mage like her was a rare find. Sting remembered watching the match in awe, despite his lack of interest initially. Sting snickered; despite that fascinating battle, the matches with Sting Eucliffe in were still the best of the best. Maybe he had decided to walk her back because he had dragged her out of her home without her keys, what if she had met trouble? He would have another debt to pay, not that he would actually mind it that much – he had enjoyed being in the blonde girl's presence, in spite of his initial dread. Sting was thinking so hard that he did not see the blonde girl stop in front of him and Lucy's face collided into Sting's hard chest.

"What?" Sting asked, noticing the sheepish look on her face while rubbing his chest.

"I-I might have left my house keys in the apartment," Lucy stumbled over her words.

"No way."

"It's your fault! If you hadn't pulled me out so quickly, I would have remembered!"

Sting sighed at the girl's dramatic outburst, "I will sneak into your home and get the key out for you. Not like I haven't been doing that for the past few days, the sneaking I mean."

Lucy waited outside her door for Sting to open it.

"I've got to go," Sting said as he opened the door for the female.

Before he left, he leaned down and whispered into the blonde's ear, "Bye Heartfilia, now you owe me one."


	2. Ice cream meltdown

**A/N: OMG! YOU GUYS! I LOVE YOU PEOPLE SO MUCH! Thanks to those who reviewed, you make me inspired to write more. Thanks to those who added this story to your alerts/favourites too! To dotRhea, thanks for pointing out the mistake! I changed it the moment I read your review! I had a good laugh myself. **

**Oh, today's Good Friday so... enjoy:)**

**I hope I won't be late in updating next week as I'll be out of town for almost five days. **

**Lots of love, PET. :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Fairytail. **

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><p><strong><em>Chapter 2: Ice cream meltdown<em>**

"Luuuucccyyyy," a certain fire dragon slayer whined.

"For the last time," Lucy snapped, "no means no! We just returned from a mission yesterday! I need a break!"

It has been almost two weeks since Sting and Lucy went to that restaurant and if Lucy was honest to herself, that blonde dragon slayer was on her mind 90% of the time.

"You know, you could always agree to go with him and pick out the easiest quest on the board," Lisanna teased into her ear as she walked by with a tray of empty glasses. "I heard there's a fairly well-paid decorating job now. No fighting, and mostly relaxing. Take the job, all for the sake of shutting him up."

"Really now, Lisanna?" Lucy exclaimed loudly. "You want to go on a job but Mira and Elfman are a little tied up right now? Hey, Natsu! Heard that?"

Of course Natsu heard it. His face lit up and he ran up to the white-haired mage. Lisanna shot Lucy a death glare. As much as the takeover mage yearns to spend more time with her childhood friend, everybody knows that cleaning up his mess after every mission was the most tiring job of all. Mess, huh? Lucy started wondering if Sting ever destroyed anything while on a job, and if he does, would he clean it his mess up like he did in her apartment? Lucy was sure that he did.

When night fell, Lucy went home alone. Natsu was still bothering Lisanna about that mission. Lucy giggled. She understood the pain of that rambunctious pink-haired mage always next to you, whining for attention. But hey, as long as Natsu wasn't pestering her all the time, she didn't mind if she implicated a friend. Furthermore, Lucy was sure that, deep down, Lisanna was actually elated by the attention Natsu gave her.

"Free!" Lucy squealed as she balanced herself by the river.

"From what?" she heard a voice from behind said.

Lucy gave a slight grin and turned swiftly, "You know, Sting, you sure like popping out from the darkness, don't you? Don't tell me you are a dark dragon slayer."

Sting scoffed, "Most people associate Rogue to darkness rather than me."

"Let me guess, they associate you to light? I mean, with the way you dress."

"What about you? Which element do you think I am?"

Lucy shrugged, "There are many possibilities, but one thing I know for sure is that you and your partner are an enigmatic pair. And Mr Mysterious, what are you doing here?"

"Have you forgotten you owe me something?"

"Oh right, I'm in your debt," Lucy sighed. "What do you want? A drink?"

"Your body," Sting leaned forward and whispered sexily into her ears.

Blood rushed to Lucy's face as she tried to push him away. Finally, Sting stepped back and propped himself against the lamp post – their only source of light in this darkness.

With a smug smile on his face, he guffawed, "You should have seen the look on your face! Hilarious! You really think I wanted your body? I want an ice cream."

Like previously, he gripped Lucy's wrists tightly and pulled her to the park without a thought for the girl herself.

"I'm going to get fat," Lucy bleated as she stared at her vanilla and strawberry ice cream.

"You already are," Sting pointed out, earning a glare from the lady. "I was kidding," Sting mumbled. "You have nothing to worry about."

"Says the guy who called me fat seconds ago," Lucy muttered.

"I meant you probably won't look fat, you never look fat anyway," Sting mumbled again as he looked away.

Lucy felt her face getting warmer again, "I don't know if I should feel disgusted by the seemingly perverted comment, or flattered, but thanks? What's your ice cream flavor?" Lucy asked, trying to change the topic and shatter the awkward tension between them.

"You wouldn't like it, it's lizard tails and monkey's eyes." Sting saw the look on Lucy's face and tried to suppress his laughter. "You're really gullible, you know? I was kidding, I have no idea what flavor this is but I heard the seller said something about a winged fish. Let me try yours."

Without waiting for an answer, Sting bent down and licked the cream off her cone.

"H-hey!" Lucy stuttered. Regaining her composure, she masked her nervousness with a look of distaste, "Do you mean the winged fish that can be found at Web Valley? They are inedible!" She remembered the last time they tried those flying fishes, even Happy found it gross!

"It's actually quite nice! Wanna try?" Sting said, shoving his ice cream in front of her face.

Licking her lips, Lucy nodded hesitantly. They already shared saliva once, what's the harm in another? She stuck out her tongue and bent forward. At the same moment, the ice cream moved towards her, causing cream to spread all over her lips and nose. She heard Sting burst out in laughter and frowned, deciding that revenge was in order. She tiptoed and dumped her cone on Sting's head. Both of them started laughing at each other once they had seen how the other party looked like, without caring about the looks they were receiving from bystanders and started smearing more ice cream on one another.

"Hey! It's actually quite delicious! After seven years, they finally found out how to make this disgusting fish edible!" Lucy exclaimed while licking her lips. "And you look like you need a bath!"

"Speak for yourself. You looked like you just bathed in ice cream," Sting chuckled.

"Shut up! Whose fault do you think it is? Come on, wash up at my apartment." Lucy tugged onto his hands. Realizing that her hand was in Sting's, she tried to pull it away but to no avail. Sting gripped onto her small hands firmly, refusing to let go. Both went to Lucy's home like that, hand in hand, not looking at each other.

Sting wondered what possessed him to make such a move on that girl. They've only met without her annoying friends twice, the first one didn't count since he was drunk, but Sting's mind has been occupied by the celestial Mage ever since their dinner together. He originally wanted to treat her to dinner and be done with her as soon as possible, but it didn't go as planned. When the dinner ended, Sting felt a sense of unwillingness to not let the girl go, hence following her home. He was glad to be able to help the girl get the keys – just another excuse to see her again. What was it about her that made him feel this way? He took a peep at her and realized that it could be her smile. That unselfish smile she would show even to her guild's rival. That smile which could brighten up even a blind man's day.

"Do you want to get into the shower first or-" Lucy started the moment they entered the room.

"Go ahead."

"Don't-"

"Touch anything? No promises."

Lucy let out a loud sigh and grabbed her things before heading for a shower. She saw herself in the mirror and let out soft laugh, knowing that she was probably heard by the dragon slayer outside. She looked horrible! There was blue cream all over her head and face. She thought about Sting, knowing he didn't look any better than she did. Lucy decided to have a quick bath, not wanting to let Sting wait any longer and not wanting him to look around her house, especially at her novels which she remembered leaving on the desk in plain sight.

"Sorry, I don't think I have an extra set of clothes for you," Lucy apologized sheepishly.

"I'll just wear my old clothes back."

Lucy hummed as she dried her hair, waiting for Sting to reappear from the bathroom. Suddenly, she felt a grip on her arms and was pulled into the tiny room. Sting lifted Lucy, bridal style, gently put her down in the wet bath tub and turned around to turn the shower knob. The loud sound from the shower head became noisier. Lucy flushed as she scanned the man in front of her. He had a towel wrapped around his bottom, but the abs of his were as clear as day, even with the fog coming from the hot water.

"Like what you see?" Sting smirked.

More blood rushed to her face and as if the heat from the water wasn't hot enough, the air around her became warmer, and Natsu was certainly not to be blamed this time.

Lucy scowled, "What am I doing here?"

Sting put a finger on his lips and whisper, "Don't speak too loudly. Your fiery partner and friends are coming."

"Natsu? So?"

"The same reason you didn't bring me to the guild when I was dead drunk."

Lucy's mouth formed a small 'O'. Natsu would probably kill Sting, or at least try to, and go to Saber Tooth to cause all sorts of trouble for them. Erza would probably try to kill Sting along with Natsu, giving them higher chances of succeeding. The only sane person would probably be Gray (despite the stripping habit), but then again, Sting belonged to the guild who 'stole' first place away from them in the recent tournament, so Gray might not be as normal as Lucy thought he would be. The last thing on their mind would be listening to anybody since they would be convinced that Sting was at fault here and that Lucy was in danger.

"But your smell! Your smell is all over my place, he would still figure it out."

"I thought about that too, but seeing how I was doused with vanilla and strawberry ice cream when I came in, I am hoping that it would mask my smell."

Lucy frowned, "You speak as if you don't want to fight him."

Sting's smile faltered as he whispered, "Whoever said I didn't? I came to Magnolia to do just that, I just don't want him to fight me like this - finding me with his best friend, thinking that I coerced her to doing something."

Lucy giggled and was about to ask some more when she heard a loud 'LUCY!' over the splashing of the water. All of a sudden, Lucy remembered something.

"Shit!" Lucy exclaimed a little too loudly, hurriedly slapping her hands over her mouth, with Sting doing the same. Lucy realized that both of them were closer now and resisted the temptation to admire his body as there was a more serious situation at hand, "They will enter the bathroom!"

"They barge in knowing that you are in the shower?" Sting whispered furiously.

"Yes!" Lucy shouted back exasperated.

"Strip. Now." Sting commanded. When Lucy just stared at him in shock, Sting sighed, "Or I'll do it for you. Just your shirt, and only to your underwear!"

Lucy immediately did as she was told while Sting turned the shower off and laid down as low as possible. Lucy tried to avoid his eyes and stepped out from the bath tub. The moment she was out, Sting pulled the bath tub curtain over to hide himself.

"Luc-" Natsu and Gray walked in and turned as red as tomatoes the moment they saw her shirtless.

"Get out!" Lucy did her signature high-pitched scream.

Natsu and Gray scrambled out, their perverted actions earning a punch from Erza. Erza bowed apologetically and dragged the two boys out. Lucy sighed in relief and quickly put on the shirt and went out, not forgetting to give Sting a glance.

"What are you guys doing here?" Lucy sighed.

"We are going on a mission!" Natsu cheered.

"Aye!" Happy followed.

"I-I thought you were going with Lisanna?"

"Lisanna asked me and Gray if we could go with them, but she suddenly had something on," Erza replied for Natsu.

"Aye, she said you won't refuse this time," Happy said.

Lucy grumbled, who has the guts to reject the Titania?

Her thoughts about the man in the bathroom were about to go away, when out of the blue, Natsu started sniffing, "Is it me or is there a weird smell in your apartment?"

"What?" Lucy shot up immediately. "It must be you! I can't smell anything else!"

Her quick response earned her weird looks from her teammates and she stuttered, "M-maybe it was the insect repellent I was using a moment ago. There was a pesky bee that refused to leave my house; I had to spray practically every corner!"

When they didn't reply, sweat formed on her forehead. She had to get them out of the house before they found out she was holding Sting in the bathroom, where she came out almost half-naked. Not to mention, it was already late into the night. There would definitely be misunderstandings, violent ones at that.

"Don't you feel hungry? I'm feeling hungry! Let's grab supper!"

"Eh? But, Lucy, you said supper makes you fat," Natsu whined, wanting to stay in Lucy's homey apartment longer.

"Aye! Plus if you gain any more weight, my wings might not be able to support you!" Happy took this chance to tease Lucy.

"When I say I want supper, you better grab supper with me! You blue furry kitty, stop making fun of my weight! You're just weak!" Lucy growled, desperate to get them to leave.

"Lucy is scary!" the blue exceed cried.

"S-supper it is," Gray agreed, not wanting to get on Lucy's nerves, "I'm feeling hungry myself."

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><p>When Lucy returned, Sting was nowhere to be found. She headed towards her desk and found a note beneath the ink bottle. It read:<p>

_Nice story, you just need some more hot action between Gwen and Nick. _

_Anyway, you owe me one. Without me and my fantastic sense of smell, you probably wouldn't be able to get out of this by yourself. _

_Thanks for getting me wet and sticky again. _

_Sting._

_ P.S. Seriously? A pesky bee? What are you then? A whiney princess?_

Thoughts rushed through the blonde's head. First it was anger, she was mad that Sting actually had read her novel, not to mention that he had asked her to put in some smutty scenes between the main characters! And who was he to call her a whiney princess? This princess is going to kick some sorry bee's ass the next time she sees him. After anger came disbelief. Was Sting actually serious? Lucy couldn't believe that she was in his debt again. It was his fault, not hers! If Sting wasn't at her house, there would be nothing to get out of! Furthermore, she was the one who prevented him from being found and killed by her nakama! The last emotion was amusement. She couldn't help but laugh at the image of Sting, all wet and sticky from the ice cream battle they had, walking on the streets.

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><p><em>Back at Sting's home...<em>

"Hey Sting!" the darkish brown exceed called.

"What?" Sting replied as he walked lazily into his house.

"Where have you been? You have been going to places without me more often recently!" Lector whined.

"Sorry, but I've been busy."

"Busy with what? I smell ice cream all over you," Rogue asked emotionlessly.

When Sting did not reply, Rogue nodded and went back to what he was doing previously. The nod was clear between the pair who has been together since young - Rogue didn't really want to invade Sting's privacy and his friend would tell him when he is ready.

When they were going to their respective rooms, Sting heard, "Is it a girl?" Rogue knew that Sting didn't want the Exceeds to know what was going on. The Exceeds might be their trusted partners, but they were quite a busybody and annoying pair at times.

Sting looked at Rogue for a long time and nodded, giving the brightest smile Rogue has not seen in a long time.

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><p><strong><em>END of Chapter 2<em>**

**A/N: Hopefully, Hiro Mashima will reveal Sting's and Rogue's powers so that I would have an easier time with it. Gah. #excited. **

**Burning question: Do you guys want some filler chapters with fluff? .**


	3. A Starstudded night

**Sorry I'm late! Wanted to post this tomorrow but decided that I will not be cruel to you people who have given so much love to this story! Some of the reviews really made my day and dragged me out of lazy/uninspired zone to post this chapter! Another reason why this chapter wasn't posted earlier was because I wasn't really satisfied with it. Trust me, I checked it like almost ten times and I'm still not happy with it. Not that I don't like it, but I don't like it as much as I liked the last two chapters. Anyway, I hope you guys won't be too bored or won't think it's bad. If you do, don't be afraid to comment or give me _constructive __criticisms_! I will NOT entertain profanities (don't give me hate, yeah?) I really need to know how I can improve the story or chapters like this chap. So, thanks in advance! **

**In reply to some reviews! **

**B1A4luv - I'm so honoured to have this story as one of your favourite! I 333 I Never Should Have Joined too! It made me love LucyxLaxus pairing! Unfortunately, FT and ST won't be finding out too soon... (I won't have anything to write about if the story progresses too quickly, no?)**

**Luna - I'm trying my best to input some other pairings, but there won't be much as this is more Lucy x Sting centered. But I'm trying!**

**BrOkEnToYbOx - Sorry, but it won't be soon. but I'm quite excited to write that too! Don't worry though, *SPOILER ALERT* someone will find out about them in the next few chapters!**

**PurpleDiva888 - OMG! I'm glad you reviewed. Your story, _meetings_, was the inspiration for this story! so the first two chapter might seem similar in terms of ideas! Thanks for the review!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail**

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><p><strong><em>Chapter 3: A Star-studded night<em>  
><strong>

Lucy sat by the bar, flipping the book infront her quickly. Levy and Mirajane stares at her wide eyed.

"Are you reading that or fanning yourself?" Levy finally asked.

"Huh?" Lucy said absentmindedly and put the book down.

The bartender and the bookworm looked at each other. Both knew what each other was thinking - Lucy not reading a book when there was one in front of her, a rare sight.

"Is anything wrong?" Mirajane stopped cleaning the glasses and asked.

"Wha-what? Why would you think that?" Lucy stammered, giving herself away.

"You've been acting weird ever since you came back from that mission with Team Natsu," her best friend pointed out.

"Something happened between you and, maybe Gray or Natsu?" Mirajane wiggled her eyebrows.

Lucy flushed, embarrassed by just the thought of her being paired up with two of her closest guy friends. However, her two friends thought otherwise and immediately went nearer to her exclaiming, "Who?"

Juvia, who somehow manages to be present every time her crush's name was mentioned, instinctively dashed towards the blonde mage, "You are a love rival! Don't take Gray-sama away from Juvia, or Juvia will show you what she is capable of!"

The three ladies sweat dropped and Lucy hurriedly said, "It has nothing to with those two! I swear! I-I'm just having a writer's block!"

When they have calmed down, Lucy thought of a great idea which could solve her dilemma. "The thing was, I had unconsciously wrote this part and was wondering about this scene the whole time."

The three of them nodded, especially Levy who couldn't wait to know what the progress with Lucy's novel was.

"Well, at a point of a novel, the female grabbed the hands of the male to bring him somewhere. At that time, it was only their second meeting. When the female realized what she has done, she wanted to release the hands but the male grabbed onto it, refusing to let her hand go."

When Lucy was done with her description, Levy and Mirajane were squealing while Juvia had hearts all over her eyes, probably imagining the situation with Gray.

"What's the problem?" Levy asked excitedly.

"You see, the thing is, the male never said anything about liking the female. No talk of romance at all, and they haven't met since then. So do you-"

Mirajane interrupted excitedly, "The guy loves the girl! Obviously! Love needs no words."

Lucy sighed as she had expected that sort of answer from the matchmaker. She faced Levy and asked for her opinion.

Levy pushed up her glasses and said, "From this little information, the guy could either love the girl, or feels protective over her, or maybe feel scared? Lu-chan, if you want them to fall in love, you are going to need more hints than that, but either way, I am so excited for your story!"

Finally, she faced Juvia, who still had her head in cloud nine, "Juvia wants Gray-sama to hold Juvia's hands!"

"Thanks, you guys, for your opinions." Lucy was truly grateful, even though she only took one out of the three seriously.

Lucy went back to think about Sting. After that night, she had gone for a month long mission and during that mission, she had been distracted. Very distracted. So distracted that Natsu had to save her not once, not twice, but thrice. The first was from a rotting tree falling over, threatening to crush her. The second from the bandits who almost shot an arrow through her legs and the last save, was from getting lost in the town market they had decided to explore. Lucy had been so lost in her thoughts and imagination that she had got separated from her teammates. All of them, especially Erza, had chided her for being so careless throughout the whole mission, which Lucy had blamed on being tired. Thankfully, they believed her little lie. Thinking about what Levy had said, she nodded to herself. Levy did make sense and Lucy had similar thoughts as well. It can't be possible that Sting was scared. Dragon slayers weren't scared about anything, with the exception of Wendy, and there was absolutely nothing to be afraid of at that time. Did Sting like her? Her heart thumped just by thinking about it. Did she like Sting? She wasn't sure, but she was positive that she enjoyed his company, even though he was a member of Saber Tooth.

"Hey, there was a little boy who wanted to pass a note to you," a guild member tapped on her shoulders, halting her thoughts.

Levy raised her eyebrows and from Lucy's peripheral vision, she could see a certain pearly white-haired Take Over mage looking too interested in the note. Lucy gave them a puzzled look, to tell them that she didn't know what was going on either. Slowly, she unfolded the note, which was messily folded.

_I hope you haven't forgotten about the debt you are in. I expect a decadent meal._

_From a pesky bee._

Lucy smiled a wide smile which most of the guild members did not miss. Who knew Sting had a side like this to him? Levy and Mirajane looked at the blonde curiously, wondering who that little love letter was from to make Lucy look like that. Yup, that dense girl was definitely in love, if only she knew about it herself. Both knew to let Lucy drown in her happiness before pestering her to tell her who it was from. Mirajane scanned the whole guild. Her eyes stopped at the two mages who were fighting, as usual. Was it Natsu? Nah, that boy didn't know how to even write a love letter, much less get a little boy to send the letter. Gray? Mirajane shook her head again. As much as Mirajane loves to tease the both of them together and actually thought that they look compatible together, everyone, except for a constantly jealous water mage, knew that they had a completely platonic relationship with each other. However, those two guys seemed to be the most possible for the female. The other guys in the guild were either in love with someone else or weren't at all suitable for the celestial mage. Not to forget, Lucy was shy when it came to guys. Mirajane tapped her chin, just who was it that gave Lucy that note?

When she saw the girl slipping the note into the back pocket of her skirt, Mirajane opened her mouth, wanting to find out more about the note and the mysterious sender. However, Lucy skipped out of the guild even before she could say anything.

Lucy bounced throughout town as the happiness inside of her overwhelmed her so much that she was worried that she would do something extreme if she were to continue to be cooped up in the guild. Finally, contact from Sting! She wanted to shout out loud but instead directed the blur in her head towards the boutiques lining the streets. Halfway while window shopping, Lucy saw a beautiful blue halter neck summer dress and stopped to admire it.

"It would look great on you."

Lucy turned back excitedly, "Sting!"

"I came to get what you owe me," Sting shrugged.

"About that," Lucy started her argument, "I don't owe you anything. You owe me one. If it wasn't for me, Natsu would have sniffed you out."

"Are you serious? You thought your lousy excuses saved the day?"

"Well, yes. Besides, if you didn't dirty me with the ice cream, I wouldn't have thought of revenge and we wouldn't need a shower at my house. Not to forget, you read my novel which I didn't give you the permission to read."

"You make one hell of an argument, Ms. Whiney Princess," Sting chuckled. "I figured you would say that, hence I came prepared. Come on, we have a train to catch."

"What?" Lucy exclaimed as Sting pulled her to the train station just in time for the train.

* * *

><p>"We are at Barcy because?" Lucy asked for the millionth time. Sting had brought her on an hour ride to Barcy, without revealing his plans for the day.<p>

Sting groaned and looked around, and then facing Lucy, "We are here. Close your eyes."

While Sting led her to someplace, Lucy felt nervous. What was the guy going to do now? Lucy gasped inwardly. Was he going to rape her? Nah, Lucy thought. As sexy as she was, he had gained her trust after the two meetings they had and wouldn't do anything like that to her. Then again, he did make some racy comments preciously. After almost five minutes, which seemed to fly by quickly with Lucy's paranoia thoughts, they stopped.

"Open your eyes."

And so Lucy did. When she did, her jaws dropped and she gave Sting a glance. The guy was avoiding her eyes and had this unusually shy and, in Lucy's opinion, had a cute smile on her face.

"You did all of this for me?" her voice started to crack as she pointed to the picnic mat and basket on the grass patch, with a candle in the middle. The place was on a hilltop with many rare beautiful flowers, and the picnic mat was situated right in the middle where everything was in sight. Next to the mat, there was a huge telescope.

"Not really me," Sting confessed, "I had some friends to help out too."

"Friends?" Lucy raised her eyebrows, knowing that with Sting's character, he shouldn't have many friends.

"Some townspeople I've helped before," Sting shrugged. To be honest, Sting had forced the fishmonger at Barcy to put up a request on the Saber Tooth's noticeboard, pretending that he was going to surprise his girlfriend and that he needed some help with preparations. The huge fish reward would certainly catch his and his partner's Exceeds attention and they would force them to do this mission. Sting pretended to be reluctant while Rogue was his usual nonchalant self. Halfway through the job, Sting excused himself by saying that he had a package to collect at another town and went to find Lucy, leaving them the work of the last minute touch-ups. The plan was successful. Sting resisted the urge to give a smug smile. The Exceeds did not suspect a thing.

Both of them sat down and started their meal, neither of them saying anything. When Lucy was done eating, she started humming a song. Sting lied back on the mat with an arm behind his head and closed his eyes, appreciating the tune.

"What a joyful tune. Must be because of me," Sting smirked jokingly.

"Yup," Lucy blurted, popping the 'p'. Realizing what she just said, she looked away, trying to appear unconcerned.

Sting's eyes widen in shock. He had expected the girl to say something sarcastic or maybe denial, but she didn't.

"This is one of the best things somebody has done for me in a long time."

A slight red tint crept up Sting's cheeks when Lucy turned her head and smiled.

"W-well," Sting stuttered in embarrassment, "the best has yet to come. Look up."

Lucy tilted her necks upwards, and felt an ache which probably came from the previous mission she did. However, all thoughts of the previous mission and the pain in her neck dissipated when she saw what Sting was pointing at. Millions of stars studded the midnight blue sky. Lucy saw a huge grin on Sting's face as he took the candle and blew it out.

"The telescope is there if you want to, I don't know, spot some stars."

"It's okay, star gazing like this is fine. Do you mind if I-" Lucy started asking.

Sting shifted, knowing what the celestial mage was going to ask, and pulled Lucy down to lie next to him. If they were looking at each other, they would realize that the redness of their face could be seen even in this darkness.

"What are the other moments in your life which has made you feel like this?" Sting asked, curious about her life.

Not taking her eyes off the star, she asked, "What do you mean?"

"You said me doing this was one of the best things somebody has done for you in a long time. I want to know what the others are."

Lucy tore her eyes off the sky and gave Sting a momentary glance, "Aren't you a busybody?" she joked but told him anyway. "The last time I felt like this was probably last year. Eh, wait, seven years ago. Gosh, this time skip is so hard to get used to. Anyway, I was sick during the cherry blossom festival and it being my first year in Magnolia, I was desperate to see the acclaimed rainbow Sakura. You should have seen how depressed I got. However, just as I was staring outside my window, a huge Sakura tree in a pot sailed past the river in a boat. The next day, I found out it was Natsu. Needless to say, he got into deep shit because of that, but it was a sweet gesture altogether."

Sting purses his lips as he looked at the blonde next to him. Suddenly, he blurted, "I'm jealous. That idiot can see you whenever he wants to. He sees all that different face expressions of yours, save you from all that monsters and makes you so happy, while I am only seeing you because I'm in your debt. I don't like that."

Lucy stated at Sting and then turned to her sides to face him and whispered, "I don't like that either."

The whisper might have been too soft to hear for some but the dragon slayer definitely heard that. "Can I see you more often? Even when we don't owe each other anything. I want to go on a d-da-da-" Sting started stumbling over his words.

"Date?" Lucy giggled, trying hard not to show that her heart was about to jump out of her chest.

"Yeah," Sting mumbled.

"I would love to," Lucy grinned as she leaned towards Sting and gave him a peck on his cheeks, both blushing furiously as the girl did that. "Besides, I told you something about me, the next time we meet, it's your turn."

For once, Sting didn't bother arguing with her. For the whole night, they laid down at the grass patch at Barcy, gazing at the stars. The girl tried to teach the dragon slayer about the constellations but Sting couldn't concentrate with that pretty blondie in front of him, hence only learning bits and pieces.

Behind in a tree high up in the sky, two little Exceeds laughed, "This is the first time I've seen Sting acting like that. He looks stupid!"

"You better be softer, he might hear you," Frosch laughed loudly along with his best friend despite his own warning.

"No way!" Lector exclaimed. "He's much too in love with the girl to even realize or he would be here by now! Man, I'm going to make fun of him so bad! And he thought he could trick us! He would usually groan and grumble when we do things our way!"

"Yup, yup! We aren't that stupid like him! We knew something was up when he was so obedient! At least we got all those fishes out of his stupidity! Yum, yum!"

Both started to sing, "Sting's got a girlfriend, Sting's got a girlfriend" loudly, but the loud horrible singing went unnoticed by the deaf newly-formed couple.

* * *

><p><strong><em>End of chapter 3.<em>**

**Was it too soon for them to start dating? Remember! Constructive comments! **

**Lessons start next week and I hope I would be able to post the chapter on time, preferably, next weekend. I kinda have an idea for fluff/filler chapter, but if there's any scenes you thought of and want me to add in scenes (no smut) between any pairing, please feel free to suggest, I need more ideas! So any burning requests? Go ahead. ;) If it fits the story, I will definitely add it in! **

**R&R!**

**In case some people haven't realized, there was a line in this chapter from Pretty Little Liars (if you guys even watched it...). One or two lines from the bathroom scene came from that show too. So yeah, those lines aren't my own. (Disclaimer just in case. :P)**


	4. I'll miss you

**I'm on time this week! I'm really glad that many of you liked the previous chapter and initially, I added this chapter as a filler, but I realised that it was quite a crucial chapter, and it should stand as a chapter on it's own. So, I named this chapter 3.5. **** I might get busier soon, so yeah. Next post will be somewhat a filler and I'll try to post it in the middle of the week.**

**Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail doesn't belong to me. **

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter 3.5 : I'll miss you<strong>_

"Oi, wake up, Heartfilia."

Lucy stirred and snuggled deeper to the warmth beside her. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she started shaking. Finally, she started getting annoyed and growled softly. Lucy's eyes fluttered open as she heard a soft chuckle. The bright sun rays were glaring into her eyes and she brought her arm to her face to shield herself. All of the sudden, her eyes widened in realization of something and she shot up. Or, she tried to until she felt her head colliding onto something hard.

"Ow!" both parties cried in unison as Lucy rubbed her forehead.

"The heck?" Sting groaned.

"S-Sting? What was your face doing in front of my head in the first place?"

Lucy became even more confused when she saw Sting look away. She swore she saw a light pink tint on his cheeks.

The dragon slayer coughed and lied "Y-you looked…uncomfortable, s-so I-I thought you were u-unwell or something. Come on, let's get going to the town. I'm hungry and I need my breakfast."

Lucy got ready to stand up and took Sting's hands when he offered to help her up. However, in the midst of this action, Lucy remembered the events of last night and blushed, avoiding Sting's gaze. Then, she frowned, "Wait, breakfast? What's the time now?"

Sting looked at the sun, then at the trees around them and answered, "The sun rose not long ago. My guess is it's almost eight?"

"EIGHT?" Lucy shouted. "Are you kidding? It's this late already? I forgot that Team Natsu is to embark on a mission today! Erza is going to kill me! Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"

"Ouch! What was the whack for! You didn't tell me you had an appointment today! How was I to know?"

"You didn't tell me that we were going to stay out till the next day either! Besides, why would I tell you about the mission? You didn't ask and it has nothing to do with you, so I didn't tell!" Lucy argued.

"It has everything to do with me! Because you're my girlfriend!" Sting blurted a little too loudly as they approached the town entrance.

Both of them looked away in shyness immediately after the fact that had been on their minds since morning was said out loud. The celestial mage did not forget to add under her breath, "I only became your girlfriend last night."

Once they were in the bustling town center, Lucy's footsteps sped up. She wanted to get back to Magnolia as soon as possible. Who knew what Erza would do to her when she got back, but Lucy was determined to live to see her relationship with Sting blossom. Realizing what she had just thought, the air around her became warmer. She felt herself walking faster and faster until suddenly, a grab on her wrist halted her thoughts. She spun back and found Sting scowling.

"Why are you walking so fast for? Can't wait to get as far away from me as possible?"

"N-No!" Lucy shouted quickly, not wanting her new boyfriend to get the wrong idea.

"Then have breakfast with me. There's a nice shop here."

"Eh? B-but Erza, the mission! Erza will kill me!"

"You are already late, aren't you? One or two hours later won't make a difference, she'll still kill you. So might as well spend more time with me," Sting shrugged.

"Gee, thanks," Lucy muttered but followed him anyway.

Lucy tagged behind Sting as he led her to the shop he mentioned. On the way to the shop, there were many females who had woken up early to do some grocery shopping started fawning over Sting. In Lucy's opinion, they were getting too close to _her_ boyfriend and were too clingy, even though it didn't seem like Sting was paying them much attention. Good thoughts, good thoughts, Lucy chanted to herself silently as she concentrated on her breathing, making sure she kept her emotions in check. She and most of her guild members knew how bad-tempered she could be.

"Sting-kun," a lady, who Lucy thought was slim and slender but lost to her in the boobs and prettiness category, purred, "spend some time with me?"

Lucy clenched her fist when she saw the woman holding tightly onto Sting's arms and sticking her flat chest onto it. "Good thoughts, good thoughts. The stars last night were pretty, very pretty," the blonde female started whispering to herself.

Suddenly, she felt her bigger and more muscular hand slip into her tiny ones and was tanked forward, in between the clingy female and Sting.

"I'm with a friend and I'm not in the mood to deal with you today, go," Sting growled.

Lucy thought she saw the lady shivered as she scrambled away. She sighed, "You could have been–"

"We're here," Sting interrupted.

Lucy looked up to see a shop looking somewhat old and run-down if she compared it with the more modernized and newer buildings next to it. Sting nudged her to enter and the wind chimes on the entrance rang, announcing the arrival of them. Appearing out of the small door was an old lady. The wrinkles on her face creased together when she smiled.

"It's you," she said when she saw Sting, giving Lucy a side glance. "Where's Rogue?"

"He's not with me today. He's at home."

"Ah, brought a girl here today, didn't you? I thought I would never live to see this day." The lady scanned Lucy up and down and nodded, "What a wonderful young lady! So pretty and so dazzling! Aren't you a little too good for this obnoxious boy here?"

"Eh? Ah! Not at all, madam," Lucy stuttered, not expecting such a question.

"Call me Gisele, no need to be so polite," Gisele chuckled. "What's your name, young lady?"

"It's Lucy, Gisele-san."

"Well, if you insist on the formalities, I can't help it. Sting-kun, seems like you found a real gem here."

Sting smirked, "Haven't I? Enough with this talk! Whip up something nice for us, nothing too fussy."

"What a waste of a perfectly fine woman. To be with such a rude boy like him, what a waste indeed," Gisele muttered.

"I can hear you, you know?"

Lucy watched as Gisele went into the kitchen, then she admired the interior design of the diner. She thought back about the first time she went for a meal with Sting. That restaurant might have looked a tad classier, but both places had that homey feel to it, and Lucy liked it.

"How did you find this place?" Lucy asked.

"We came here on a request from Gisele a few years ago and she treated us to a meal, since then, we will come here when we are done with a mission nearby."

Lucy nodded her head. It seemed like each time she met him, there was a new side of Sting to be discovered. If only Natsu could see this side of Sting too and accept him.

"Don't tell her this, but she's like a mother we never had. Rogue has never said anything before, but I'm sure he feels the same," Sting interrupted her thoughts.

"You," Lucy hesitated for a moment, unsure if she should voice out her opinions on Sting's affairs, "you, like the other dragon slayers, have never seen your real parents before, right?"

Lucy caught Sting pursing his lips, even though it was only for a second, before shaking his head.

"Ta-" Sting stopped himself. "I have no interest in meeting such irresponsible parents like them. Anyway, you should really try Gisele's cooking. It's as good as your mother's!"

Lucy noticed Sting changing the subject and kept in mind that she would not speak of such matters to her boyfriend anytime soon. She commented, "How do you know how my mother's cooking tasted like?"

"I don't know? Don't all mothers have a special touch to their meals?"

"My mother has never cooked for me before."

"Oh," Sting said, no knowing what else to say.

"We had chefs to do the cooking for us," Lucy informed Sting like it was nothing.

Sting thanked his stars that Gisele came out of the kitchen with the aromatic food in time to avoid the awkwardness with Lucy.

* * *

><p>Lucy had to admit, if it was possible, she would very much like to kidnap Gisele to replace Mirajane – her cooking was heavenly!<p>

"Heh, you wish. I called dibs from the very beginning," Sting smirked when Lucy shared her thoughts. "And it's only right that such a top-scale chef should work for the top guild of Fiore!"

"Oh yeah? I don't see her at Saber Tooth right now!" Lucy retorted.

"Excuse me if I don't resort to such underhanded methods like kidnapping to bring her to Saber Tooth. I respect the old lady's choice."

At the corner of her diner, the said old lady sat on one of the stools at the bar counter, grinning from ear to ear as she watched the squabbling duo. She muttered softly, "Cute couple." Lucy might not be able to hear it, but the dragon slayer, with his keen sense of hearing, chuckled when he heard the two words.

Finally, it was time for Lucy to leave. Sting gulped when he saw the huge train behind her, even though he wasn't the one riding it, but hid his disgust over transport.

"So," Lucy started, "see you soon, huh? Thanks for everything, it was really sweet of you."

Sting blushed at that compliment and nodded. The train whistled and the other commuters scrambled on to the departing train. Lucy turned back hesitantly and took small steps towards the vehicle. Suddenly, she felt herself being spun around and her head landed on something hard. Lucy blinked when she saw that Sting was holding her in his arms.

"I'm already missing you," he whispered tenderly, unlike himself, giving Lucy the shivers. "Wait for my note, okay? And don't let that fire-breathing idiot devour you."

Lucy giggled and cupped his head into her small hands. They stared at each other but were interrupted by the second whistle of the train. Lucy scrunched her face and rubbed her nose against Sting's, whispering back, "What nonsense are you going on about? I'll miss you too."

Alas, they were forced to pull away from each other yet they held their gaze as Lucy boarded the train.

Sting sighed as he looked upon the leaving train.

"You can stop staring now, the train's gone," Rogue interrupted his thoughts, causing Sting to almost jump. Almost.

"Shut up," Sting muttered. His ears perked up as he picked up two very familiar voices and he groaned.

"Sting's a lovesick boy!" Lector and Frosch teased.

"I SAID SHUT UP!" Sting lost his temper and his face became as red as tomatoes. Rogue raised his eyebrows, wondering if the redness was caused by embarrassment or by fury.

"Imagine what the guild will say! The best dragon slayer of Fiore looking like that! They will definitely be laughing non-stop!" Lector ignored Sting.

Sting squatted down and put his head into his hand. "How did you guys find out anyway?"

"You can't hide anything from me! And you suck at lying! And you never let me have fish as reward! And you are too suspicious! And you-"

"Okay, okay! I get it! Let's get going!"

"So you aren't going to stare at your girlfriend some more?" Frosch asked, somewhat, innocently.

"I'm home!" Lucy slammed open her door, announcing to no one in particular.

To her surprise, her blue thing flew into her chest, slamming the girl a few steps back.

"Lu-cy! Where have you been? I thought you were in danger!" Happy started crying.

Lucy opened her mouth to comfort the crying Exceed when she was interrupted by a stern 'Lucy'.

"Do you know what time is it now?" Erza asked.

"A-aye," Lucy stuttered softly. She took a peek behind the equip mage and saw Gray and Natsu clinging on to each other, putting on their fake smiles. Erza must be really mad, Lucy thought, afraid of what would be in store for her.

"Do you know what time we were supposed to meet?"

"A-aye!"

"Do you know how late you are?"

"Yes, madam!"

"However!" Erza bellowed, almost shocking Lucy out of her skin. "Despite being mad that you have a time management problem, I was really worried!"

To show her worry, Erza took Lucy's head and pulled it onto her hard silver armor. A loud clang was heard and Natsu and Gray flinched. When she let go of Lucy, Lucy could literally see stars.

"Seriously though," Gray spoke up, seeing that there was probably no danger to stand near Erza now, "where have you been? We've been looking all over for you!"

"Ya! Lucy, you meanie! You got us so worked up! I was so worried when I didn't see you in your bed! I wanted to sleep with you!" Natsu echoed.

"You liiikkkkkeeee her!" Happy teased.

"Shut up! Both of you!" Lucy screamed as she whacked both of them on the head. "Sorry guys, I was in Barcy."

Lucy had thought about her excuse on the way home and had decided that the more truthful, the better.

"Barcy?" All of them asked, in tune.

"What were you there for?" Erza interrogated.

"It seemed like it would be a star-filled night at Barcy, so I decide to do some star-gazing."

"Lucy, you weirdo. If you wanted to do some star-gazing, you could have told me and I would have joined you."

Lucy resisted the urge to give a smug smile; she had already known Natsu would ask this question. "I wasn't only looking for stars, but I was also looking for some peace and quiet."

"Still, you should have informed us," Gray sighed.

"Or return back to Magnolia on time," Erza added.

Lucy laughed forcefully and nodded, "It slipped my mind."

"Just promise me you'll never do something like that again," Natsu said seriously, reminding Lucy of Sting at the train station. How unlike Natsu.

With her fingers crossed at her back, she whispered, "I promise." In her head, she told herself, "Crossed fingers. It doesn't count."

* * *

><p><strong>Sweet? Too sweet? Not sweet enough? R&amp;R!<strong>

**I have actually planned the 'type' of dragon slayer Sting is, mainly because I am getting extremely impatient! I really really want Hiro Mashima to reveal his powers now! **


	5. Take note of the time and DATES!

**Woah, this chapter is extremely long. You remembered how I planned so add in the filler? I added it into the 4th chapter, so I hope the length makes up for the missing filler I promised you guys. Thanks everybody for the reviews! The latest chapter of FT came out today and the appearance of Saber Tooth's guild master allowed me to quickly change a small part of this chapter! :D **

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own FT**

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter 4: Take note of the time and DATES!<em>  
><strong>

It has been a month since Sting asked Lucy out and they have only gone on a date. Both agreed to keep it a secret from their guilds, especially Fairy Tail. The ruckus Natsu will create for both their guilds would be unimaginably chaotic. Lucy shuddered just thinking about it. Sting, however, wasn't as worried about Natsu. He was afraid of the dire consequences if Jiemma, his guild master, discovered about the romance he is having with someone from a weak guild, especially since Makarov returned.

Lucy and Sting, sat in their respective guilds, remembering their date three weeks ago.

"Let's go fishing!" Natsu shouted across the guild.

Lucy looked up from her book, looked at her surroundings and gave Natsu a long stare, before realizing that he was talking to her.

"M-me?" she stuttered.

Natsu frowned, "Lucy, you weirdo, who else did you think I was talking about? I thought I informed you yesterday?"

"S-sorry, Natsu, I didn't realize you included me too. I thought it would only be you and Happy. I have some plans today."

"I'll follow you!"

"Actually, I was planning to have a quiet time with my parents today."

The guilt pangs hit Lucy the moment she saw Natsu's face fell. She felt guilty for lying to Natsu like that but it wasn't a lie. She was indeed going to Acalypha, however, she wasn't only going to visit her parents' grave.

"I'll be quick, though!" Lucy added almost immediately.

"It's okay, take your time," Natsu tried to calm the blonde mage. He knew how much Lucy cherished such moments with her parents and he didn't want to disrupt it. "I'm going to fish with Happy and then find you at Acalypha?"

"Sure! Wait! How long will you be fishing?" Lucy asked.

"THIRTY MINUTES?" Sting shouted, causing his girlfriend to shut her ear tightly with her finger. "I came all the way here to spend thirty minutes with you? Do you know how long the ride was?"

Lucy huffed in annoyance, "I know! Honestly, there's no helping it! I already feel bad for lying to him, and ditching him when I know he has wanted to go fishing with me for a long time. Not to mention I used his weakness by mentioning my parents!"

"Who asked you to lie to him using your parents? Stupid fairy," Lector said with his face full of amusement from looking at the quarrelling couple.

"Who said I was lying? I'm also here to see my parents!"

"Y-Your parents?" Sting stuttered, his first time hearing of the plans.

"Yes! What is your team doing here anyway?"

"They found out," Sting muttered.

"Because Sting is a bad liar!" Frosch exclaimed.

Sting grabbed the celestial mage by her wrists and pulled her away, annoyed by the fact that they were supposed to be alone, yet they were not. Not only that, he had to spend thirty minutes with his girlfriend and it was only their first date! He was pissed, indeed. They walked past a shop when Lucy stopped him and went in. He waited outside - Sting was certain that he would sneeze non-stop if he had entered, what with his extraordinary sense of smell and all. He tapped his feet impatiently waiting for Lucy, who, after what seemed like an eternity to Sting, emerged out of the shop with a two large bouquets of flowers. Sting raised his eyebrows but was ignored by the female mage, much to his displeasure. He tagged behind Lucy, following her to who knows where, at the same time, telling her how his team mates had found out about them.

Finally, Lucy stopped, causing Sting to collide into her. "We have arrived," she announced.

Sting glanced around and found himself standing in front of two tombstone, side by side. Lucy nodded her head, signaling Sting to put the bouquets in front of the tombstone. The dragon slayer had surprised Lucy with his gentlemanliness by taking, or in Lucy's opinion, snatching the flowers away from her. Sting did as he was told and squatted down. While on the task, he read the carvings on the tombstone.

Layla Heartfilia

X748 – X777

Judo Heartfilia

X746 – X791

"These," Sting hesitated, thinking about the right words to say, "are your parents?"

Lucy nodded and decided to tell Sting about them, after seeing his curious face. "Mama was my inspiration. She was one of the greatest celestial mage I've ever known and she taught me how to treat my spirits as friends instead of my fighters."

"Your dad?"

"Papa? Towards him, I'm full of regrets. He passed away while I was on Tenroujima and we didn't have a chance to talk it out. When I was younger, we didn't have a really good relationship. He absorbed himself in his work after Mama died and somewhat neglected him. I hated him, then, for that and ran away from home. I didn't want to live out the life he had planned for me. However, since Tenroujima, I realized that Papa loves me a lot," Lucy remembered the last time she saw her father and felt tears welling up her eyes.

Suddenly, she felt a strong arm and a warm body around her. After recovering from her initial shock, she slid her arms around Sting and held him tightly and released the tears she had been holding back.

When they pulled away, the couple decided to just sit at the bench at the cemetery and appreciate each other's company. The scenery wasn't much, but it definitely wasn't romantic. Not at all how Lucy always thought her first date would be. As for Sting, he was too caught up in his own thoughts about Lucy's parents that he kept quiet, taking quick peeks at the female mage from time to time. Thirty minutes flew by quickly and it was time for Lucy to meet Natsu at the train station.

"I'll go to the station myself, it'll be troublesome if Natsu is already there and he sees you," Lucy stopped Sting before he could stand up.

"Like that guy has brains to put two and two together," Sting rolled his eyes.

Lucy chided the guy and headed towards train station, not forgetting a kiss on the forehead from Sting. When Lucy was out of sight (not out of mind though…), Sting walked to the front of the two Heartfillia's tombstones and whispered, "Thank you for bringing up such a wonderful daughter, I promise I will protect her."

Lucy thanked her lucky stars that Sting did not follow her to the station that day. Natsu was waiting impatiently at the train station and was tempted to head to the cemetery to look for Lucy. Ever since that star gazing night at Barcy, her team hardly let her out of their sight, and visiting her parents' grave was a tiny exception. A short thirty minutes exception. While she was at Barcy enjoying that romantic time with Sting, her team had combed through Magnolia thinking Lucy was in danger when they found her absent in her apartment. It was difficult to explain her 'disappearance' especially to the sharp scarlet head warrior.

Not to forget, Lucy had been incredibly stupid to not mask her happiness from the guild, especially from a particularly nosy take over mage-cum-bartender. For some reason, the bartender was convinced that the love look on her face was due to Natsu since he refuses to let the celestial wizard out of his sight. Lucy decided to let her be, better her thinking the man in her life now was Natsu than Sting.

Lastly, a strong Mage like Sting had many requests and he has been as busy as a bee, pun unintended, resulting in even less time for them to meet. Currently, the only ways of contact between both of them were letters and an item teleportation lacrima. The one date they had went on, they had only seen each other for half an hour. Lucy sighed, she didn't want to be greedy, but it just wasn't enough.

"That's the third time you've sighed in the past ten minutes," Levy pointed out.

"I was just thinking of something." To be more specific, she was thinking about how to be free from Natsu to go Malgart this evening. She had agreed, hastily, to Sting's date earlier that day while they were exchanging letters via the lacrima.

"Something about your novel?" Levy's eyes lit up.

"Sorry to break your bubble, but no."

Lucy looked at Levy's crestfallen face and giggled. Her best friend was always like this when it came to news of her novels. Best friend, huh? Lucy thought. She couldn't do this alone but if she had somebody, like how Sting has Rogue, maybe it would all work out! Counting on her spirits would be useless since the leader of the Zodiac had repeatedly reminded her that 'their' only involvement in this 'crazy' relationship was to keep it from the guild. Lucy bit her lips. What would Levy think? Sure, Levy was one of the more simple-minded guild members of Fairy Tail, and didn't act recklessly like the others, but she has been hanging out with a certain iron dragon slayer these few days, much to the Jet's and Droy's chagrin, and could have been influenced by him. Everyone knew how much the three first generation dragon slayers of their guild hated the third generation dragon slayers in Saber Tooth for killing their own parent. Lucy hated that thought too, but that was that, she couldn't help what her heart decides. The heart didn't have a brain to decide who and who not to love.

"Hey, Levy-chan? Let's have a girl's talk at the sushi bar nearby?"

Levy gave Lucy a knowing glance and they went to the sushi bar.

"What is it, Lu-chan?" Levy asked as she chomped on her cucumber roll.

"Can I tell you a secret? But you have to promise me not to tell anybody! Not even Gajeel, Jet or Droy!"

Levy nodded her head, puzzled. She knew what a promise was worth to the celestial mage.

"I've been...going out with somebody," Lucy said slowly, trying hard not to mention any names until Levy begs.

She saw her best friend's eyes widened and took this chance to continue, "The thing is, this guy has some...bad history with some people in our guild, mainly Natsu, and I'm trying to keep it a secret."

Lucy looked at Levy who cleared her throat and asked, "How long has this been going on?"

"Not that long, he's only asked out last month, and we have met up once when Natsu went fishing with Happy." Then Lucy added on, mumbling, "For about thirty minutes."

They stared at each other long and hard until Levy sighed, "You need me to get your team off your back right? Fine."

"Levy-chan! You truly are the best!" Lucy squealed.

"On one condition, I want to meet that guy. You don't have to tell me who it is yet, but I need to meet the guy who makes you look like that."

"Like what?"

"A love sick teenager," Levy said with a smug smile.

"Hey!" Lucy puffed her face, "As a matter of fact, I am still a teenager!"

"All because of the time skip."

* * *

><p>"Hey Charle, I would like to ask you a favor." Lucy smiled.<p>

"No," the little white exceed rejected immediately.

"Come on! I'll do whatever you want!" Lucy pleaded.

"Anything?" Charle raised her eyebrows as Lucy nodded furiously. "I want you to go on a mission with Wendy next week, but don't give her any trouble."

Lucy nodded as she sweat dropped. The task was easy, yet difficult – the white cat defines many things as trouble.

"So? What was it you wanted me to do?"

"Distract Happy for the whole day!"

Charle nodded, even though she was a little curious. However, she understood how annoying that blue exceed could get most of the time.

At the same time, Levy was at a cake shop, pleading with the baker. "Please help me out. Just for four hours! Have a half price cake sale! I will cover all your losses. Furthermore, you only need to sell your cakes to one person! Please!"

The baker reluctantly agreed. Besides, years ago his business was booming thanks to these fairies, now it was time to repay the favor.

"Are you ready to do this?"

Levy nodded and bit her lips, "I feel a little bad though."

Lucy wiggled her brows, "For whom? The boys, the guild, or maybe a certain iron dragon slayer?"

Levy blushed and gave Lucy a glare.

"Hey Levy-chan," Lucy started their plan, "I've been thinking ever since the Tenroujima incident and the tournament. Who do you is stronger? Gajeel or Natsu?"

Behind Levy, Lucy could see Gajeel's bored face perking up.

"E-eh? I feel lousy saying this but personally, I think Natsu is. Gajeel was so badly beaten up trying to protect me and all, but Natsu could even fight Hades afterwards! Then again, they had different enemies, so it's difficult to say."

Lucy nodded and suppressed a smile when she saw Gajeel's face turning red in fury. "Point taken. What about Gray and Natsu?"

"Definitely Gray."

"I know right?" Lucy cringed when she realized she sounded like those stereotypical blonde bimbos. "No question asked. I mean, Gray did defeat Ultear singlehandedly and Ultear is the leader of the Seven Kin of Purgatory."

"Exactly," Levy agreed as her fingers formed one, two and three.

As if on cue, Gajeel shouted, "Natsu!" while Natsu shouted, "Gray!"

The guild watched on as the three men started a brawl, all of them hoping that Erza would come in to save the day. However, the equip Mage was at a cake shop eating as many cakes as possible. The two ladies responsible for the chaos sneaked out of the guild and gave each other a high five the moment they reached the train station knowing that a certain pesky blue exceed will not be stalking them.

* * *

><p>"Are we early or is your boyfriend late?" Levy huffed after sitting at Malgart's train station for fifteen minutes. She was really anxious to know who Lucy was dating.<p>

"You are early," a mischievous voice commented from behind.

Lucy livened up when she saw that it was Lector.

"Hey princess, you should have told me we have company," Sting went up to his girlfriend and gave her a peck on her cheeks.

Levy's mouth widened the moment she saw who it was and she dragged her best friend to a corner.

"Are you out of your mind?" she shouted. "Sting Eucliffe? Sting Eucliffe of Saber Tooth? You are dating him? No wonder you want to keep it a secret! Natsu, no, the whole guild will go ballistic!"

"Come on, it isn't that bad. Sting is actually a great guy once you get to know him," Lucy tried to calm the girl down.

"Excuse me ladies," Sting interrupted the girls, "I hope you know that I can hear you and I'm gonna borrow Lucy for a moment."

"I thought we agreed not to tell anyone," Sting scowled.

"Well, Levy is my best friend and I needed a way to sneak out of Magnolia. You have Rogue to help and I need somebody too, right?" Lucy reasoned. "Come on, let's get Rogue to join us for dinner too. We can get to know one another better."

Levy and Rogue reluctantly tagged along after much persuasion and they decided to visit a pizza parlor. The tension was awkward at first and Sting tried breaking the ice by talking about the mission they went on just before arriving Malgart, but started to get too absorbed in his own story that he wouldn't stop.

While Sting was in the middle of his story, Levy whispered, "Have you noticed that waitress glaring at us ever since we've came in?"

"She probably recognizes us," Rogue suddenly said. That black-haired mage hasn't said a word ever since they stepped into the restaurant and it was a surprise to the girls to hear him speak.

"Is anyone even listening to that guy?" Levy asked.

"Nope, maybe only Lector," Frosch deadpanned. "Happens all the time."

Everybody turn to look at pair. True enough, the white-clad dragon slayer was still acting out the scenario with his brown partner engrossed in his story. Lucy and Levy giggled at the comedic scene.

However, the horrible experience at the restaurant ruined the mood. When the pizza came, the same waitress dropped the pizza cutter onto Levy 'by accident'. Thanks to Rogue's quick action, it didn't drop onto Levy. When Levy went to the washroom and returned, she tripped, bumping into another waiter, spilling the drinks on his tray.

"Okay, that is it!" Sting stood up suddenly. "That was strike three! You guys just lost our business and us as customers. No one treats my companions that way."

The rest followed Sting as he stomped out of the restaurant, with Lucy and Levy utterly confused.

"Mind telling us what's going on?" Levy asked.

"Yeah, and strike three? You think we are at a baseball match?" Lucy joked, trying to lighten up the mood.

"That waitress had it in for you the moment you entered. First she put salt into your water," Sting explained, facing Levy.

"But-" Levy tried to argue.

"I switched it before you noticed," Rogue interrupted.

"Then she tried to drop that pizza roller on you," Sting continued.

"Pizza cutter," Lucy corrected.

"Huh?"

"That was a pizza cutter, not a pizza roller. A pizza roller cuts the dough when-" Lucy stopped herself when she received daggers from her boyfriend. "Right, I'm sorry, continue."

"Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted by miss smarty pants here, I was saying, the third strike was when she tried to trip Levy."

"Eh, but why?" Levy cried.

"She must have been Rogue's fan and was probably jealous of you," Frosch explained.

"Me?" Levy exclaimed, a look of disbelief on her face. "What has it got to do with me? But thanks anyway, for standing up for me even though that girl was probably nuts."

"Don't mention it," Sting winked, "People in Malgart needs to know they can't mess with Sting Eucliffe, the best dragon slayer on Earthland, or his companions."

Lucy gave Sting a playful punch for his arrogance but her wrists were caught by his strong hands and she was dragged to the side.

"Happy one month anniversary," he whispered into her ears, his cheeks turning pink. Sting hooked a bracelet around the girl's wrist and grinned sheepishly. Lucy twisted her wrist around, admiring the charms on it. There was a bee, a star, a key and an ice cream charm around the bracelet. "Lector said that girls were particular with dates like this and that they expected something special to remember the day. It took me a long time to find something suitable but I knew this was the one the moment I saw it."

Lucy giggled as she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a peck on his lips, "Thank you, I love it, but you didn't need to. Of all the people you could listen to, you listen to your cat?"

"Lector is a very smart cat, fitting for an extremely smart person like me," Sting smirked; the soft and romantic side of him shown to Lucy just seconds ago has disappeared.

They went for a snack at a café nearby, feeling hungry from storming out of the restaurant without having their meal. Finally, just as the sky turned dark, Lucy said her goodbyes and went home to Magnolia along with Levy.

"I approve," Levy blurted in the middle of the train ride. "I approve of Sting. As much as I still don't really like him as a dragon slayer, I like the way he looks at you and treats you. I can tell he loves you a lot. Plus, I thought he would hate me, seeing how I was from a rival guild, but I was wrong."

Lucy smiled, "He is dating Lucy of Fairy Tail after all, isn't he?"

"True," Levy nodded.

Levy smiled to herself as she leaned against the windows of the train. She didn't really want to admit it, but her impression of the white dragon slayer has changed. She always thought that Sting was an arrogant bastard who just cared about himself, his strength and nothing else. However, seeing him around Lucy today changed her mind. Sting was still arrogant whose strength matters to him a lot but he cares about his friends and especially his relationship with Lucy. Thinking about it now, Levy realized that the description fitted Natsu perfectly. Natsu, huh? What would he think when he found out about the relationship between them? Levy sighed, poor Natsu, if only he realized his feelings for the celestial wizard earlier, he could have had a chance of being with the girl. But now, seeing how in love her best friend was with the dragon slayer from Saber Tooth, Natsu had almost nada chance of that happening, and truthfully, Levy wanted Lucy to stay the way she was now with Sting. Happily in love.

* * *

><p><strong><em>3814 words<em> w/o A/N! **

**So Levy was the first one to find out! Who expected it? **

**Please R&R! :D**


	6. The Feelings of the Dragon Slayers

**I'm so sorry for being late. Don't hate me, but I was planning to upload this in another week. I didn't realized it had been so long since the previous upload until the review from Laura. School has been super busy for me and I really tried my best to find time to type this out. As an apology, more Lucy x Sting fluff! **

**I was glad that many of you enjoyed the previous chapter, and I enjoyed writing that too. However, I'm sorry to disappoint, but this story would NOT have Rogue x Levy. I ship Rogue and Frosch, their interaction with each other when Jiemma kicked Yukino out was too cute! And I think I said this before, this story mainly focuses on Sting x Lucy and one-sided Nalu.**

**Disclaimer: FT does not belong to me.**

* * *

><p><em><strong>Chapter 5: The Feelings Belonging to the Dragon Slayers<strong>_

On a sunshine-filled morning, something unbelievable was happening in the guild. It was a rare sight indeed – Natsu was quiet, unusually quiet. He was sitting at the bar, thinking. More specifically, he was thinking about his blonde partner. She has been acting weird lately and even though Natsu calls Lucy weird all the time, her weirdness this time is on a whole new level. Just two weeks ago, she had gone on a mission with Wendy. He wanted to tag along, of course, but Wendy had begged him to stay. She wanted to take this chance to train with Lucy, and with Natsu around, she was sure to have no chance of that. The sky maiden was like a little sister to him and with that white exceed of hers glaring at him like that, he did not have the heart to reject her. To curb his boredom, he went on a mission with only Happy, something he hasn't done in a long time. Sure it was fun and all, but still, Natsu felt a little emptiness in him. To his dismay, he had returned to the guild to find Lucy gone on a solo mission. That was the weird thing. Whenever did the celestial mage have the guts to go on a solo mission? Not only a solo mission, but a solo mission right after returning on the mission she went with Wendy. Lucy always complains whenever he makes her go on a mission the day after they return from one, so why the eagerness now? Something very, very weird was going on with his best friend.

"Good morning everybody!" the said celestial mage, who had returned from that solo mission just yesterday, greeted the whole guild cheerfully.

And there was it, that bright smile, which somehow became brighter recently. He had no idea when Lucy became so radiant, but there was something dazzling about her nowadays that the light she emitted could rival Loke's lion brilliance. With his keen sense of hearing, he had heard Mirajane saying something like 'a teenage girl in love'. Natsu furrowed his eyebrows; his slanted eyes became even more slanted. Lucy, in love? With whom? He felt his heartbeat speeding up as he thought of his best friend being in love with him. Wait, what? What was he thinking? That could never happen! Lucy always found him annoying and would only think of him as a best friend and nothing else. A pain shot his chest as he thought that way. Unconsciously, his hands went to his pockets and he fiddled with silver accessory in it. He had bought it on his solo mission while Happy was distracted by the fish store. It was a necklace with a single charm on it. It had reminded him of Lucy so much that he bought it without much thought, not that he put much thought in anything else anyway. Natsu moved his fingertips along the outline of the star charm. Would Lucy like it? He had seen the charm bracelet on her wrists and noticed how she always wore it wherever she went. Did she buy that herself? After all, that celestial mage did have impeccable taste.

At the same time, the blonde and her blue-haired best friend were huddled at the other of the bar giggling. However, the fire dragon slayer was so deep in thought that he did not hear them.

"Let me guess, your 'solo mission' went well?" Levy wiggled her eyebrows.

"Shut up, Levy-chan!" Lucy shouted softly as her face reddened. "In case you were thinking dirty, nothing happened."

The solid script mage pouted, "Oh man! Honestly though, Lu-chan, you need to have some experience for your novels!"

"What?" Lucy shouted a little too loudly, blushing furiously. She couldn't believe her friend would have the same opinions as a certain dragon slayer. To think that Lucy thought Levy was an innocent girl before. A smirk formed on Lucy's face, "Why? You've had, and I quote, 'some experience' with a certain black-haired, iron-loving dragon slayer, haven't you? Come on! Share it with me!"

Levy immediately turned to a deep shade of red and took a peek at Gajeel, who was trying to look at them discreetly. Lucy was sure that he had heard what she had said and was pinkish at the moment. "Shut up! I was just joking! So what happened?"

Lucy thought back to the events which happened the previous week. Knowing that Natsu was on a mission, and that it was her one rare chance to meet up with Sting, who she hasn't met ever since their one month anniversary, she hurriedly pick up the only job available in the town Sting and Rogue was in. It was only when she was on the train when she realized that the job was to capture a group of bandits who had been harassing the town members. She groaned, that was just the kind of missions she avoided, even when she was with Natsu, and now, she was alone. Not really alone, but you get what she mean.

"Are you an idiot?" Sting scolded her as they combed through the forest, looking for the bandits' hideout which was rumored to be there.

"As expected from a Fairy Tail mage!" Frosch and Lector sang in harmony, while Rogue just nodded his head.

"Shut up!" Lucy hissed at the group, tired from looking around.

It took them less than thirty minutes to find the hideout, thanks to the two dragon slayers' keen senses, and they had defeating almost all of them, hardly giving Lucy a chance to fight. Deep down though, Lucy was thankful that the two of them were here. She did not know how she would handle this mission if she was alone. Albeit, technically, she would never take a mission if she knew she would be alone. Meeting up with her boyfriend was an exception.

"Can you let me take care of this one?" Lucy pleaded, facing the last group of bandits.

The team from Saber tooth looked at each other. Finally, Rogue shrugged and walked away with his frog-dressed exceed behind him.

"Sure, knock yourself out. Wait, I meant it as a figure of speech, don't take it literally. If they really knock you out, I'll knock them out of Fiore! We'll be nearby so call for us when you are done," Sting waved his hands and strolled towards Rogue.

Lucy smiled softly with gratitude. Sting had said "when you are done" instead of "when you need help", and this meant a lot more to her than he thinks. It meant that they respect her as a mage, and as a friend. She wouldn't like it if they completed the mission that she had picked out and she did not want to lose this opportunity to train herself. With Team Natsu, she was always more of the damsel in distress, sometimes also the caretaker. It's not that they did not believe in the celestial mage's powers, but they tend to go so overboard that the fights were usually won in a blink of an eye.

"Open! Gate of the lion, Leo!" Lucy shouted.

The celestial spirit appeared with a poof and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose.

"I hate to say this, but I like his style. I never thought I would be able to get some action," Loke said as he cracked his knuckles. "That doesn't mean I approve your relationship with him."

Lucy remembered the time when Loke knew she was dating the dragon slayer of Saber Tooth, when did he _not know_ about what was going on in her life? Her most trustworthy spirit was furious. Furious not because he was upset that Lucy actually picked that dumb dragon slayer belonging to the rival guild over the charming him but because Lucy actually picked that dumb dragon slayer belonging to the rival guild.

To be honest, Loke had placed bets with Cana that Natsu and Lucy would get together. However, looks like the money with Cana would be gone, not that Cana, or anybody else knew. Lucy had threatened to not call on the lion spirit if he went to tell the guild and Loke knew better then to break Lucy's trust in him. Reluctantly, he disappeared to the celestial world, not breathing a word to anybody.

"I don't really care about your thoughts on my love life, but let's prove to them that we can complete the job!" Lucy pumped her fist and took out her whip.

With some Regulus punch here and there, the small group of bandits was defeated within minutes.

"Well then, my love, a celebration is in order," Loke gave a gentlemanly smile after they had tied the bandits up.

"What did you say?" Sting's mouth twitched in annoyance.

"Even though you are Lucy's boyfriend, ultimately, the man in her life is me." Loke took Lucy's hands and gently place a kiss on it.

Before Sting could even land a punch on Loke, Lucy sighed, "Force Closure." The lion spirit disappeared with gold shimmering around it. "Come on, we need to turn in these criminals."

They walked towards the mayor house with Sting dragging the bandits while grousing about something and the rest just tuning him out.

"I can't believe you let your spirits treat you like that," Sting continued to grumble when they arrived at the inn.

Lucy wiggled deeper into Sting's arms on the sofa in the living room and grinned, "They are not just my spirits, but also my friends, I can't control the way they want to treat me. Besides, aren't you tired? You've been sulking about the same thing for the past hour!"

"You have many guys in your life, don't you?"

"What are you talking about? Don't let the jealousy get into your head!" Lucy giggled, wanting to read the book she had bought with the reward while snuggling on the sofa with Sting.

"I'm talking about the lion spirit of yours, that ice freak you have as teammate, and not forgetting your best friend, Natsu."

Lucy closed her book and stared at her boyfriend, finally she sighed, "Firstly, Loke is my spirit and friend; he is my part of my magic. You just have to deal with it. That ice freak has a name, Gray. I can't even hug him in the most friendly way, much less think of liking him. If I did, you would probably find me in the Dead Sea, and trust me, I won't be there to swim. Besides, he's like an older brother to me! Lastly, Natsu, like you said, is my best friend. There's nothing to worry about. He brought me to Fairy Tail and I owe him a lot. You should thank him too, in my honest opinion."

"And I should because?" Sting raised his eyebrows.

"If I didn't meet him, you probably won't have such a beautiful and sexy girlfriend right now."

Sting scoffed at his girlfriend's ridiculous remark, "I'm so popular, and I won't have trouble finding a better one."

Lucy puffed her cheeks, face turning red with anger. Upon seeing that, Sting ruffled her head, messing up her hair and chuckled, "Just kidding, Heartfilia. I know what you mean but if you want me to be on good terms with that guy, sorry, no can do."

Lucy sighed, "I know, it's not like he would want to be friends with you either." Then, Lucy bit her lips.

"What is it, Heartfilia? Shoot."

"I know it's a little late asking this, but I can't help wondering, do you remember the very first time we met?"

"At the Grand Magic Tournament?"

"No, not that. When you were dead drunk. You didn't really answer my question that day and it somehow slipped my mind. What were you doing in Magnolia?"

"To find my angel," Sting gave a smug smile, showing off his canine teeth set.

Lucy pushed Sting away as he tried to give her a kiss, "I'm serious. Oh, and when we were, uh, in the bath tub together- Don't let the perverted thoughts get into your head, you pervert! Anyway, after the ice cream incident, I remembered you saying that you came to Magnolia to fight with Natsu. What did you mean by that? "

Sting's smile disappeared and he went solemn, "Fine. I was unsatisfied, okay? I did not want to believe the results of the fight I had with Natsu. I don't believe I'm at par with him! I'm much, much stronger than him! I wanted to have a rematch with him."

"A drunken rematch?" Lucy sneered.

"You don't understand how important this is to me."

Lucy opened her mouth but she couldn't find the right words to say. She knew he was right. She didn't understand the importance of winning but she figured that his thoughts would somewhat be the same as Natsu's. She knew that Natsu, too, was not contented with the draw from the fight, at the Grand Magic Tournament, with Sting, and that he wanted to fight with Sting again too. Both wanted to win. However, the difference was, Lucy could understand Natsu's reason for wanting to defeat the dragon slayers from Saber Tooth. It wasn't all for the show of strength, instead, it was because of the fury planted inside him when he heard that Sting had killed his own parents – dragons which the three dragon slayers of Fairy Tail had difficulty finding. As for Sting, Lucy wasn't sure. After knowing Sting better, Lucy knew the guy hardly acts recklessly so she assumed that he had his own reasons.

"You want to know, don't you?" Sting said, as if reading her thoughts.

Lucy became speechless. She didn't know what to say. As much as she wanted to know, she didn't want to rush Sting into telling her. As the old saying goes, curiosity kills the cat. Finally, she shook her head.

"I don't have to know now. After dating you for more than a month, I can safely assume that you do things for a reason. However, can you promise me one thing?" Lucy asked. "Two things actually."

Without waiting for Sting's response, Lucy went ahead with her requests, "Number one, don't kill each other. Natsu and you, I mean."

"Tell that to him."

"I'm being serious."

"Number two?"

"Please don't make me choose between the two of you. You two are important to me and if you ask me, I think you two are equally matched and honestly, this thought of fighting again to prove who is stronger is stupid. Can you promise me that?"

Sting pursed her lips and with the arm he had slung around her shoulders, he pulled her nearer, "I promise."

Sting knew how important Fairy Tail and Natsu were to the girl and he knew that if she were forced to choose between him and her family, he would probably not like her answer. After thinking for awhile, Sting made up his mind: He would do anything to make the girl happy and he doesn't plan on making her choose. The fight with Natsu would still happen someday, of course, just not in front of his girl.

"I promise you that I would not let that fight come between us, nor will I drag you into our fights."

"Thank you," Lucy whispered as she buried her face into his chest.

Outside the inn, Rogue had sneaked out of his room in the inn with the two Exceeds – he didn't want to hear the sweet talks of the couple who was just a door away. His ears perked up when he heard Sting's name being mentioned and it came from the entrance of the inn. Rogue quickened his footsteps towards the reception of the inn. He grabbed the guy's shirt and slammed him against the wall.

"Who are you?" He hissed. Rogue took a second look at him and remembered seeing him around them the whole day. He eyed the pass hanging around the brunette's neck and yanked it off him, throwing it to Frosch who flew in the air and caught it.

"Fro will read it! The Daily Sorcerer. Reporter. Martin Daniels."

"Reporter? What are you reporting?"

When Martin refused to answer, Rogue grabbed the notepad out of his grip and read it. When Rogue was done reading, he tore the notepad up with a rip.

"Why would you think that our Sting and Lucy of Fairy Tail are in a romantic relationship?"

With another yank, the camera hanging around the waist was in Rogue's hands. The dragon slayer looked at the pictures and snickered, "Because of these pictures of them together? I'm together with you now, so does it mean that we are dating? All these are rubbish, and you know what Saber Tooth does to rubbish? We destroy them."

Rogue threw it onto the ground and stomp onto it, not caring about the tearful Martin.

"If I see any untrue articles about Sting or Lucy, I definitely won't be the only one after you. You will be responsible for your actions, you understand me?"

Martin nodded his head frantically and gathered his stuff before running away.

Lector crossed his arms, "It's lucky you found that reporter in time, Rogue. I would not imagine what Jiemma-sama would do to Sting or Lucy if her were to find out! It's all Sting's fault, being so public with that girl. He should keep it discreet!"

Rogue nodded silently. He just hoped that his actions would help and not add fuel to fire and that there were no other reporters out there.

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><p><strong>Enjoyed it? Please give me your comments. <strong>

**I can't wait to upload the next chapter! Yes, I have it ready, just need some corrections here and there, but I won't upload it until I have the chapter after next ready. I love my readers and I'll try to upload it soon! :D**


	7. She's my nakama?

**I'm back for this week's chapter! Apparently, today is one of the reviewer's birthday! Happy Birthday! I was initially planning to release this the day before, but I shall release this as a present. (I try my best, yeah? ;D) Thanks for reading and hope you will continue to review! Same goes for everybody as well! Hope there's no mistake, this is one of my favourite chapters! ENJOY! **

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 6: She's my nakama?<strong>_

Lucy fiddled with her fingers. The sparkle which was usually on her face wasn't there today, and instead, there was a look of worry. Her fingertips left her knuckles and traced upwards to her wrist, where a very special charm bracelet hung. Lucy frowned. She had been having this queasy feeling in her chest the whole morning. She knew something bad was going to happen, but she wasn't exactly sure what. As if the feeling in her wasn't enough, there had been some pretty bad luck stuffs happening to her lately. Just the day before, she had gone fishing with Happy and Natsu and it started raining just when there was a tug on her fishing rod. Okay, so it wasn't just her, but the thing was, she was the only one who fell into a puddle of mud while trying to avoid the rain! Just thinking about it makes Lucy want to take another bath. Then yesterday, she had broken a cup. She didn't thought about these incidents until this morning when she woke up feeling uneasy. Was it about Sting? She thought. They haven't met up for more than a month now and perhaps, he had found another girl. Lucy shook her head and lightly slapped her cheeks. She could not think like that! They were approaching their six months anniversary, a feat for both since they hadn't thought they could keep it from their guilds for this long. Despite that, Lucy felt a longing for Sting. Whoever said that absence makes the heart grow fonder must have known what Lucy was going through right now – Lucy was almost desperate to see her boyfriend and hopes that he, too, felt the same way.

"Lucy," Happy called, "Lucy is weird."

"You're the weird one!" Lucy shouted, knowing that the blue exceed had expected it.

"Ya, Lucy is weird," Natsu agreed. "You have been staring at nothing the whole day."

"It's so boring," Lucy lied. "Levy's on a job with Shadow Gear, I haven't found any good reads lately and there's nothing to do!" In her head Lucy added, and Sting is so busy!

Suddenly Erza appeared beside them, "Agreed, we should go on a job."

"We should!" Natsu cheered, pulling Lucy to the job board. "Let's pick the thieves catching one!"

"No. Let's pick this one instead," Lucy argued, almost tearing out the paper which requested for people to help out at a shop.

"I have already picked out one," Erza said as she slammed the paper on the table. "Any problem with my decision?"

"A-aye!" Natsu and Lucy stuttered in unison. "I mean, n-no! No problem!"

"Gray! Put on your clothes! You're coming with us!"

"Aye!" Gray shot out of his seat and ran after Erza as she marched out of the guild doors.

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><p>"Hi, are you Mrs Elfin, the person who requested for mages to help clean your house?" Lucy bowed courteously at the woman standing at the door.<p>

"Yes, but you are not cleaning my house, I'm just the head servant here," replied the middle-aged woman who had her hair bundled up.

Mrs Elfin led them around the mansion towards the office. Lucy glanced around. Even though it was still smaller than her father's office back when she was a rich heiress, it still gave her a sense of nostalgia.

"My masters and mistress are not home currently and they have requested me to give you your instructions."

Team Natsu nodded and Mrs Elfin continued, "Mainly, we have three rooms that need clearing and tidying – the basement, the attic and lastly, the weaponry."

Lucy nodded in understanding. Now she knew why Erza, who usually preferred to go on jobs which either included performing or fighting, picked this job.

When Mrs Elfin was done with her instructions, Erza cleared her throat, "I will take the weaponry, Lucy and Gray, the basement, and Natsu and Happy, the attic. Are we clear?"

"Uh, Erza? How about Happy and I take the attic while Lucy and Natsu take the basement?" Gray voiced out. "I don't think Happy would be able to stop Natsu from burning anything and me and Natsu? No way."

"Hmmph! I bet you just want to get the smaller room to clean!" Natsu sneered.

"Shut up, Fire brain!" Gray shouted. Then, he pulled Natsu nearer to him, shocking Lucy but not Erza, who nodded at the two 'best friends'.

"I'm trying to help you here!" Gray whispered harshly. Looking at Natsu's confused face, he sighed, "I heard you talking to Lisanna last week! About Lucy! Here's your chance to show her your feelings! You, her, alone in the basement, can you think of a better place?"

Natsu's eyes lit up when what Gray had told him processed in his head, "Thanks man. I hate to say this, but I owe you one, Snowman."

"Hey! What did you say, Charcoal?"

Erza went towards the suddenly quarrelling men, took them by their collar and struck their heads together, "Let's get to work."

Lucy's jaw dropped when they entered the basement. She hated messy and this was beyond messy. She gave Natsu a glance and saw that he had a grin on his face and he didn't look worried at all about clearing this slump up. Oh right, how could Lucy ever forget? His house was a slump too. The last, and only, time she had went to his house, she was so irked by the state that she helped him to clean up. Unfortunately, her hard work went unappreciated. If that was Natsu's cleanliness standard, it looks like she would have to do this job alone. She cursed Gray under her breath for pairing her up with that dirty mess-making monster.

"Don't burn anything," Lucy warned and got started.

Natsu stared at Lucy's fair face as she walked towards a pile of junk. Was she always so beautiful? He knew she was but he knew that many other guys thought the same way he did. Just thinking about those creeps having the same thoughts as him makes him boil and want to burn them to crisps. He knew that the blonde always had a special place in his heart but he had always deny it, thinking that it was friendship, never thinking for a moment that it could be something more.

He remembered clearly the first time he met her – they were at Hargeon and he was looking for his foster father while she was on her way to Fairy Tail, or perhaps, just travelling around. When she had treated him, grateful for whatever he did that he still wasn't too sure, he was certain that Lucy was one strange female. He even classified her as one of those blonde bimbos, just maybe a little smarter than those that had been prey to the love spell that guy had casted with that magical item of his. Was his name Bruce? Billy? Ben? Natsu wasn't really great with names in the first place anyway, and his name really wasn't of any importance. He remembered calling her Luigi the first few days of knowing her. Even though that girl had complained about the cold at Mt. Hakobe, she still tagged along and tried to help out in the battles. He was awed by how smart she was when they were tasked to steal the book from that creepy guy's mansion. Slowly, she became an important member of Fairy Tail and Team Natsu and especially, his precious partner. Natsu recalled about the small talk he had with Lisanna a few weeks ago…

"Hey, Lisanna? Have you noticed Lucy becoming…brighter lately?" Natsu confided in his childhood friend.

"Brighter?" Lisanna looked up from her chores. "Lucy was always smart, wasn't she?"

"No! That's not what I meant! I mean, does she look more…radiant to you? Like she's emitting more energy than usual?"

Lisanna looked at Natsu, wide-eyed, surprised that he even had such words in his dictionary. Then, she turned to look for Lucy who didn't appear to be in the guild at the moment.

"She's not here," Natsu explained. "She said she was going to some book signing at somewhere far and doesn't want me to ruin it for her."

Lisanna giggled at the pink-haired boy's crestfallen face and decided to help him. Sure, she did have a crush on Natsu once upon a time, but she had gotten over that now. Maybe there was a feeling of envy sometimes when she saw Natsu and his blonde partner so happy together, but that was all to it.

"How about you explain what you mean by Lucy looking more radiant and energetic?"

"No, not energetic," Natsu said in frustration. Was it him or was Lisanna stupider than usual today? "I mean, you know Lucy seems to be like the Sun and everywhere she goes, people are like sunflowers – they can't help but stare at her? Then she would emit her sunrays to them, making them happier and all?" Natsu started babbling.

Lisanna nodded, although in truth, she has no idea what Natsu was talking about.

Suddenly, her sister came up to them and grinned slyly which Natsu didn't seem to notice, "I know what you mean. Lucy brings joy to whomever she smiles at, right?"

Natsu clapped his hands, "Yes! Exactly!"

Natsu's exclamation seemed to have brought about an audience, mainly the females of the guild like Levy, Cana and Wendy, much to his embarrassment.

Lisanna tapped her chin. Was Lucy really the Sun to the sunflowers? Sure, she had a really dazzling smile which somehow makes people's day but Natsu was exaggerating. Lucy did usually turn heads, but it wasn't mostly her smile or the 'energy she emits', instead, it was most probably because of her wonderful curves which leaves men drooling and women craving to have a body like hers.

Mira said again, "I'm going to ask you a few questions and you have to ask me honestly, okay?"

Natsu nodded eagerly. His hands placed between his legs on the chair.

"When have you started noticing that she was radiating more brightly?"

"I think it has been a few months now," Natsu answered seriously.

"Eh, I don't think it's him because Lu-chan is indeed happier lately," the solid script mage interrupted but clamped her mouth when she noticed the takeover mage channeling the Satan in her to give Levy a deathly glare.

"Well, continuing on, does your heart beat faster every time you go near her or think about her?"

"I think so? Oh, when I think about the cute expression she makes!"

"What about your palm? Does it sweat? Do you want to give up your life for her when she is in trouble? Do you feel that not being around her is like a piece of you missing?" Mira started bombarding the poor guy with questions, her face going nearer to his with every question.

Natsu pushed Mira back a little, and replied, "My palms sweat a lot because of all the heat inside of me. Lucy is my partner! Of course I would give up my life for her! And your last question is a yes! I feel lonely without Lucy!"

Mira squealed in joy and clapped her hands, "You are in love!"

"Eh?" Lisanna, Wendy and Levy exclaimed in unison. Even though they knew that a long time ago, they were baffled by how the bartender could come to that conclusion when out of the three questions, only one of them showed that Natsu was in love with Lucy. Mira had forgotten that Natsu would willingly give up his life for anyone in the guild.

"I-in love? With Lucy?" Natsu stuttered.

"Yes," Cana slurred. "That means you confess to her, she confesses to you, you go out on a date, get married, have sex and babies!"

"Eek!" Wendy squeaked in horror, with Lisanna covering the little dragon slayer's ears.

Natsu went red in the face. The face suits that hair quite perfectly, Lisanna thought.

"Geez, I'm not that dumb, you know?" Natsu scowled.

"Really, 'cause I would have thought otherwise, seeing how you only just realized your feelings for your dear partner," Cana snorted.

"You shouldn't confess!" Levy blurted, resulting in everyone staring at her. "I-I mean, wouldn't it be awkward for both of you?"

"Nonsense!" Mira waved off, sending Levy another death glare, "Why would she? Haven't you seen her looking at your way more often than before? And when she does, she has that sad look on her face!"

"A sad look?" Natsu's face fell.

"It means she yearns for you! So you should confess soon!"

The others, with the exception of Cana who seems to only be focusing on her beer, sweat-dropped at Mira's reasoning –that matchmaker would do anything for love to be in the air in the guild. Levy's nervous gulp went unnoticed as the rest of the girls looked at Natsu as he gave a firm nod.

"Wow, you're strangely quiet," Lucy interrupted Natsu's thoughts. Natsu raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth, but was yet again interrupted, "Which is good, so don't make me regret saying that. You're getting a lot of work done."

Natsu opened his mouth, but was yet again interrupted, "I said, don't make me regret my words. Talk when we are done. I just want to get this job done as soon as possible."

Natsu shut his mouth immediately, causing Lucy to frown in confusion. Whenever did Natsu listen to her? She was already prepared for him to start making a whole lot of noise when she finished the sentence. Before Natsu realized, his partner was next to him, putting her hand on his forehead. Natsu flinched at her touch. His face reddened as Lucy scrunched her forehead.

"I shall assume you were always this hot? What's your normal temperature anyway?"

"I'm okay!" Natsu pushed his friend back, feeling a tad _too_ uncomfortable. "I want to get the job done as quickly as possible too. I've got something to tell you afterwards."

Lucy shrugged her shoulders and went back to where she was earlier, feeling her a little curious. What could Natsu want to say that would make him act so un-Natsu like? As much as she preferred this Natsu, she couldn't help but worry about her best friend.

"Lucy, are you done?" Natsu asked in his deep voice. Lucy almost jumped in shock upon hearing his voice. Normally, the boy would whine about her being super slow and all. The uneasiness in Lucy grew bigger and she brought her hands to her ample chest, clutching where her heart is. Finally, the blonde mage put away the last book and she walked to the small brown bench where Natsu had both his hands behind his head and his eyes shut.

"What was it you wanted to ask me?" Lucy tried to sound joyful, but she knew that Natsu could hear the nervousness in her voice.

Natsu took her hands into his and looked into Lucy's brown orbs and cleared his throat, "Lucy, I-I like you."

"I like you too," Lucy blurted out smiling brightly. It was only when the words were out of her mouth that she realized what Natsu actually meant. Her head and heart screamed in unison – the first time these two organs actually cooperated. Lucy desperately wanted to knock her head on the concrete wall but remained a straight face, or at least tried to.

Natsu's eyes lit up and Lucy felt a pang of guilt by his innocent actions, "Really?"

Lucy took a deep breath. Her quick-thinking mind had already figured a way out for her. "Sure, we are friends after all, aren't we?"

The light in the boy's eyes dimmed significantly. He nodded slowly, "We are, but I want to be something more with you. Mira said that you had feelings for me too?"

Lucy's eyes widened, then closed, before reopening to give Natsu a firm, yet soft, look. "I-I'm sorry Natsu. Mirajane isn't always correct. I-I have-" Suddenly Lucy looked down at her wrists. She slapped her hands around her empty wrist frantically and started searching around. "My bracelet! It's gone!"

The celestial mage tried her best to look for that precious item, _and_ not undo all the tidying up they had done, _and_ tried to avoid Natsu's sad glance. She had almost begged the frozen Natsu to help her look for it, but decided against it. It wouldn't be fair to him. After combing every corner, Lucy still hasn't found it and Erza had already looked for them, informing that they were the only group not done. Thus, Lucy had to give up on her search. That night, Lucy sat in her room all alone. She had rejected their offer to grab a bite, and celebrate with their reward. Natsu was reluctant to go as well, but Happy had urged him to join them. However, he only agreed when Lucy went up to him and gave him a friendly hug, whispering for him to go. She wasn't sure if it was because of his little crush on her that he listened to her or if it was because he could pick out the sorrow in her voice, but in any case, Lucy was glad that Natsu listened. She sucked in her stomach and tried to put on a huge smile and took the inn's communication lacrima crystal nearer to her, on the table. After a while, the smirking face of the dragon slayer's face she had missed so much appeared on the yellow globe.

"It's been a long time, miss me?" Sting joked.

At the sight of her boyfriend's happy face, Lucy was unable to put on the façade any longer. Her smile dropped and her vision became more blurry with the tears welling up her eyes.

"W-what's wrong?" the blonde guy stuttered, not used to seeing Lucy's smile gone from her face.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I'm really sorry!" Lucy wailed. The last time she cried like this was when she had felt pathetic after losing the match with Flare during the Grand Magic Tournament, only this time, there seemed to be more tears.

The blonde girl only managed to calm down when Sting soothed her for a little more than ten minutes. In between gasps, she told him about her missing bracelet, leaving out Natsu's confession.

"Hey, it's okay!" Sting tried cheering her up.

"No, it's not!" Lucy argued. "We only get one month anniversary once in our entire relationship!"

"It's no biggie. We can always break up," Sting shrugged but looked at Lucy's face and quickly continued, "and get back together, and have another one month anniversary!"

"Idiot! You gave me a huge scare for a moment there! I don't want a break up and get together again! It just won't be the same!"

Sting sighed, "Okay babe, I'll find it for you after my mission is done."

"It's okay, I don't think you would be able to find it anyway."

"You do know you are talking about the best dragon slayer of the best guild in Fiore, right? Coupled with the second best dragon slayer, we'll find this thing. Plus, there is this saying, "two noses are better than one"!"

Lucy giggled, her smile returning to her face the first time in hours, "It is 'two heads are better than one', you idiot. I think my team is returning soon, talk to you another time. See you soon!"

When they returned to Magnolia, Natsu kept his distance from Lucy. Without her best friend, Lucy felt lonely, she wanted to talk to Natsu desperately but he always avoided her. He seemed to be creating more havoc in the guild than usual and judging from the glances some of the members gave them, they must have already guessed what happened. Not only was Natsu not talking to her, Sting was too busy to send her even a short note. Lucy sighed as she plopped her arms onto her desk, wondering if he was able to find that charm bracelet. She was also very bored. She hasn't been to the guild very often lately, figuring that Natsu needed more time to accept the truth. Clenching her fist, she decided that it was time she talked to that pink-haired idiot.

"Natsu!" she shouted the moment she swung the guild doors opened.

She scanned the guild, ignoring the stares from the other members, and found him seated on a round table with a beer mug in his hands. He didn't look very flushed so Lucy assumed that he had just started. She marched up to him and slapped the mug out of his hand, shocking the whole guild.

"So now you're going to spend your life disregarding me, your best friend, and drink all day and night?" Lucy raised her voice. Lucy's eyebrows furrowed deeper when Natsu kept his silence. "Oh, now you're not talking to me? Don't you get it, Natsu? You are my best friend, my family, not to forget the person who introduced me to the home I have right now! Nothing can replace that! You're irreplaceable in my heart! But it's going to change if you sit here and ignore me all day! I am going to ask you this once: Do you want to go on a mission with me?"

Natsu stared at the table quietly and clenched his fist. The furious blonde mage pursed her lips and marched to the bar. The tears threatened to fall from her eyes and she tried to swallow the lump stuck in her throat. If Natsu wanted to be a lovesick fool, let him be, she had already tried. To think the guy who talks so much about how important nakama was would throw away their friendship so easily. She was still rambling in her head when all of the sudden, a sheet of paper was slammed onto the bar in front of her face.

"Let's get going. You've got your rent to pay," Natsu mumbled.

A wide smile formed on Lucy's face as she jumped off from the stool and tackled Natsu onto the floor. Some of the members looking at this scene cheered loudly for the best friends' reconciliation while Natsu formed his toothy grin. He knew that he still loved the girl, but being friends was better than being nothing at all and he admired her courage for confronting him.

However, Lucy's happiness was short-lived, for while they were almost ready to leave with Erza and Gray, Natsu started sniffing towards the door.

"What stupid thing are you doing now, flame brain, you look stupid," Gray smirked with a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Shut up," Natsu gave a low growl and continued sniffing. "This smell, I can't remember where I've smelt it before."

"LUCY!" Levy burst through the doors, her face flustered. But before she could open her mouth, a loud crash was heard. Those who were alert enough saw a figure being thrown through the guild walls, crashing into Mira's bar. Lucy's eyes widened when she saw who it was.

"What were you doing near our guild?" a growl, not belonging to Natsu, was heard. Lucy turned and saw that it was Gajeel. His hands had turned into the Iron Dragon's sword.

Soon, the three dragon slayers of Fairy Tail stood in a line, and if looks could kill, the man lying on the bar, clutching his stomach, would die a horrible death – the dragon slayer of Saber Tooth, Sting Eucliffe.

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><p><strong>Without AN, it's almost 4000 words long! I believe it's one of my longest chapter yet! I really hope you guys enjoy this chapter. With schoolwork and stuffs... I'll try my best to post the next chapter next week (on time...). Not good to leave this as a cliff hanger, right? Pester me to update in the reviews! (and gice me some constructive criticism so that I know how to make this story even better!) **

**THANK YOU!**


	8. Stuck between two

**OMIGOD. I'm super sorry for the super late delay! I know I'm like 2 weeks late and I'm the most cruel person on the planet, stopping at this cliffhanger. I just returned from a trip and the story (kinda...) slipped my mind. Plus, my teachers bombed me with assignments! (_) Once again, I'm super sorry. m(_ _)m **

**Oh, and don't worry. I won't lose interest in this fanfic, because, personally, I can't stand those authors myself. :/**

**Disclaimer: Sigh... I don't own Fairy Tail. I can't even draw for nuts. **

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 7: Stuck between two<strong>_

"_What were you doing near our guild?" a growl, no belonging to Natsu, was heard. Lucy turned and saw that it was Gajeel. His hands had turned into the Iron Dragon's sword. _

_Soon, the three dragon slayers of Fairy Tail stood in a line, and if looks could kill, the man lying on the bar, clutching his stomach would die a horrible death – the dragon slayer of Saber Tooth, Sting Eucliffe. _

Lucy stood in her spot in horror, not really sure what to do. Her heart thumped against her heart so loudly that she was sure even those who weren't dragon slayers could hear it.

"What the hell are you doing in Magnolia?" Natsu snarled at his enemy.

"Just checking how a second grade guild like Fairy Tail was doing. Still as pathetic as ever, I see," Sting smirked as if that attack Gajeel gave him just minutes ago was nothing.

In a flash, Natsu ran up to him, serving the wounded man a punch full of flame. Lucy let out a loud gasp and ran towards Natsu, shouting, "Natsu! Sti-"

"Stop where you are, blondie." Sting halted her in her tracks and licked his lips, "It will soon be your turn."

"What did you say?" Natsu hissed. The guild shivered. Insulting the guild and leering at Lucy? The dragon slayer of Saber Tooth must be asking for a death wish.

Lucy felt her tears rolling down her cheeks despite her best to stop it. She didn't miss the intense gaze Sting had given her when he had stopped her from rushing towards him. She knew that he didn't want her to get hurt and didn't want the guild to find out about them. She felt a hand on her shoulders and saw that it belonged to a certain blue-haired solid script mage. Levy gave her friend a comforting smile and shook her head softly. Then, she took the blonde's hands into hers and gave it squeeze. However, the efforts of Levy's attempt to comfort the girl were in vain when more punches were heard. Both girls looked up and saw that Natsu and Gajeel were teaming up, while Wendy was supporting them with her magic.

In between the punches and the gasps, Sting panted, "See? This is the difference between me, a true dragon slayer, and you, a dragon slayer incapable of slaying a dragon. Even with three of you fighting me, I can still stand. And you call yourself a dragon slayer? What a joke."

Suddenly, a whirlwind went in his direction. Wendy whose face was wet with tears, shouted, "At least we aren't scums! For power, you would kill those who raised you!" Some of the guild members cheered on one of their youngest mage, giving her more strength. They knew that as timid as Wendy appeared, she could master up a great amount of power depending on her emotions, just like Natsu.

"They should have expected it. They raised me and taught me my magic just so that I could destroy them!"

"Shut up!" Natsu screamed and his face was red with anger. "Do you know how many years we have spent looking for Igneel, Metalicana and Grandeeney? And you, you bastard, just killed them off like they were nothing!"

Natsu stepped back and opened his mouth, "_Karyu no Ho_-" but was stopped by a tight hug from behind. He tilted his head to the side and tried to his best to look behind. However, from his peripheral vision, he saw the blonde hair of his best friend covering her face, her arms around his waist in a tight clutch. Without straining his ears, he could hear the soft sniffing and two words coming out from her mouth, 'Please stop'.

Sting saw this sight and gritted his teeth together. "Get lost, blondie. This is a fight between me and him." He tried to look away, feeling a little jealous that his girlfriend was hugging his opponent and the fact that she could do that in front of her whole guild while they had to be sneaky about it all the time.

"Shut up!" the celestial mage snapped, surprising everybody. "What fight? Sting Eucliffe, tell me! What fight is it when you're not even fighting back? This is not a fight, but a one-sided battle! The only thing you are moving is your dumb mouth! If you want to fight it out with Natsu, how about you go home and get rid of your stinky ego before having a real battle with Natsu! He, Gajeel and Wendy deserves more respect than this!"

Before she knew it, her face was directly in front of Sting's. Lucy bit her lips to prevent herself from tearing when she saw the bruises on Sting's face and mouthed 'sorry' to him, knowing that her guild members behind her would not be able to see anything.

She quickly masked her emotions as she turned back to the guild and pointed to the door, "Now go."

"I'm not letting him go anywhere so easily," Natsu stepped in Sting's path as he limped towards the door.

"Stop your idiocy, Natsu!" Lucy shouted, shocking her best friend. "What do you think you are doing? Do you even think this fight of yours is fair? All I've seen is you three ganging up against an injured person who oddly enough, just sits there, opens his big stupid mouth and lets himself get beaten up! He wasn't even doing anything! I bet his only crime was to be near our guild, no, to be in Magnolia! Has he bullied any of our guild members? Has he destroyed anything in our guild? The only thing that has been destroyed is that damn bar which our dear Gajeel here threw him at!"

"Lucy! Why the hell are you protecting him? He gave you those looks and he killed his parents, why should we be fair to him?"

The moment Natsu ended his sentence, Lucy's palm came in contact with his face, hard. Slowly, a hand print as pink as his hair appeared on his cheeks. Lucy whispered, "I'm disappointed in you. I always thought you were a guy who treats your opponents fairly. Of all people, we should know how it feels like being treated unfairly. Or have you forgotten what Raven Claw did to us?"

"I was trying to protect you."

"I don't need any protection, but the guild does when Saber Tooth learns of what you did to their best mage. It'll be like the Phantom Lord incident all over again."

The guild kept its silence, taking in what Lucy had said. Most knew that the girl still felt guilty about the incident till this day despite constant reminders about how it was not her fault. At the mention of their old guild, Juvia and Gajeel looked down at the floor, ashamed of their past actions.

"We won against Phantom Lord, we can win against them," Natsu muttered stubbornly. His face still burned from the slap, so did his heart. He had just reconciled with his best friend and now, things might be shaky between them again. All because of that bastard.

"Lucy's right," Makarov, who had been watching the fight from the guild's entrance, stepped in between the two, and explained, "For the past seven years, while Saber Tooth has been winning the prestige first place at the Grand Mage Tournament every year, our guild was on the brink of collapsing. We were in debt, bullied and some of us, missing. With some miracle, we might win, but we would also lose some of our precious nakama. Do you want that? Lucy did the right thing by sending him away. I'm sure he means no harm, seeing how he was alone."

Nobody dared to disagree with their guild master and none noticed that Sting had taken his chance to escape from Fairy Tail while Lucy was berating Natsu. The guild went back doing their own things, with the exception of three dragon slayers and a celestial mage. The more common mages of Fairy Tail kept their eyes on them while doing their own things, especially the two friends who they thought had just made up.

"Sorry, I'm going home. I'm not in a mood for that mission now," Lucy apologized finally, breaking the heavy tension in the air. When she saw Natsu approaching her she stopped him. "I know what you're going to say, but not today. I just need some alone time now."

Lucy went back home, not saying a word to, or even looking at, anybody. She did not summon Plue, she ignored the greetings from the boatmen and she did not even remove her boots when she reached home, and that was one thing she was extremely particular about. She sat on the floor, leaning against her bed and closed her eyes. Her mind was one tangled mess with no way to untangle it. With her actions much slower than usual, she got up to the bathroom and filled her bathtub. She soaked her body and sunk into the warm water till it reached the tip of her nose and thought about the events this week. It hadn't even been a full week and this many things happened! Halfway while thinking, exhaustion took over her body and Lucy fell asleep.

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><p>Water shot up Lucy's nose, jolting the female mage awake. Lucy sputtered the water out and coughed. Staring groggily at her surroundings, she got up and wrapped her towel around her and stepped out.<p>

"Thought you were dead inside. I had to put my ears to the door to check if you were breathing."

Lucy's head shot up and her eyes widened upon finding out who the voice belonged to. She ran in full speed, forgetting that she was merely wrapped up in a towel and that the man was gravely injured.

"Oof!" Sting groaned in pain.

"Sorry!" Lucy squeaked.

Both stared into each other's eyes for a while before tearing themselves away from each other.

"I should probably get change. Your wounds need attention," Lucy murmured, flushing deeply.

Sting nodded, his face of the same colour as Lucy's.

Lucy reentered the room in her pajamas and some medicine and bandages in her hands. She propped herself next to Sting and pulled his hand towards her.

"Ouch! Be gentler! I'm an injured person here!" Sting scowled.

"I'm already very kind to you," Lucy muttered. "You idiot. Giving me those disgusting pervy looks in front of my guild members, asking me to get lost like you aren't my business. I should be breaking your arm right now!"

"It wasn't your business, it was my fight. Jeez, be gentler."

"Newsflash: You've become my business ever since you dated me, and besides, didn't you hear me just now? That wasn't a fight. Stop moving! Next hand!"

"Ow! Don't pull it so hard! I heard you loud and clear. How could I not when you called my mouth stupid twice!"

"I called your mouth stupid once. I called it dumb once too. Honestly, though, I should have insulted that machine gun mouth of yours more. Throughout that whole incident, the only thing you were moving was your mouth and nothing good ever comes out from that gap. And thank your lucky stars I keep extra supplies of burn medicine at my house."

"Those two words are synonyms, they mean the same thing."

Lucy paused and looked up. "What?" the dragon slayer snapped.

"Never would have thought you knew what synonyms were."

"Shut up!" Sting shouted, annoyed by the girl who seemed to have been shooting him down with insults ever since she saw him. "Why the hell do you keep so many burn medicine anyway?"

"I have a reckless fire mage as my best friend, _how can I not_ keep these magical burn medicines. Oh, this is going to sting, don't move so much. Sorry, ignore the pun."

Sting hissed in pain, "That fire idiot won't crash into your room tonight?"

"He won't. I made it clear that I don't want to see him tonight. Uh…"

Sting looked up and saw Lucy's nervous face. "What is it?"

"Your torso… it's hurt, right?"

Without Lucy having to say another word, Sting automatically took off his top, revealing the blue-blacks and burns on his chest, causing Lucy to cringe. Sting stiffened when Lucy's fingertips slid across his abs. His skin tingled with her every touch.

"Is it painful?" her voice was so soft and so gentle that Sting had to control himself to not pounce on her.

"Have you actually received punches from those two?" Sting scoffed.

"Actually, yeah. So I kind of understand how it hurts but I was just double checking since I know how you dragon slayers have high endurance to such pain." Seeing Sting's confused face, Lucy explained, "Natsu fights so much that he even fights in his sleep. Believe me, I've been punched out of the guild a few times already. And last year-, I meant, seven years ago, Gajeel was part of Phantom Lord Guild and under my late father's instructions, they abducted me. Even though they weren't supposed to kill me, I didn't think the Gajeel then, actually cared. I think the injuries I got from him were far worse than yours."

"And you survived?" Sting was incredulous by this fact.

"Barely. Thinking about it again, your injuries might be worse. You were against three dragon slayers and I was only against one. Okay, I'm done. Put on your shirt."

When Sting didn't do as she said, she puffed up her face and tried to send Sting a playful punch. However, Sting caught Lucy's fist in his large hands without much difficulty, causing a slight pinkish tint on the girl's face. Lucy deduced that Sting wasn't too hurt when he managed to jerk her towards him, coming face to face with each other.

"Promise me," Sting said in a low, husky voice, "Don't you ever put yourself in a dangerous position again. Like today when you stupidly ran in between two dragon slayers, one of them ready to kill the other. The other promise is to never hug another guy ever again, especially not in front of me."

"No promises for the first one, but as for the second promise, I promise my jealous boyfriend that, but if we break up…"

"You can hug whoever you want," Sting finished Lucy's sentence, "but we won't. And I'm not jealous."

Lucy leaned in and gave Sting a peck on his cheeks, giggling, "Sure you aren't."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a while with Sting's arms wrapped around Lucy's shoulder and both were on the floor with their legs tangled up. Sting twirled Lucy's blonde locks around his finger and put it to his nose, taking in that wonderful scent of the minty smell of her shampoo lingering in her hair. As for Lucy, she took comfort in Sting's embrace and shut her eyes, hoping to put the events to the back of her mind.

Suddenly, her eyes shot wide open. "What were you doing in Magnolia all alone without Lector and Rogue?"

"Oh," Sting exclaimed, almost forgetting the reason himself. "Close your eyes."

Lucy did as she was told. She felt her wrists in her boyfriend's grasp and something cooling to the touch played around her skin.

Lucy let out a soft gasp, "Is it-?"

"Open your eyes."

The blonde mage's eyes opened to the sight of a familiar precious charm bracelet. "The bracelet! I don't believe it! How did you manage to find it?"

"The nose, Heartfilia, the nose," Sting smirked as he tapped Lucy's nose playfully. "It was a little tough, though. Your smell was fading away and the town isn't exactly the smallest. Took us almost half an hour to find the mansion you did your mission at. I had to ransack the whole basement to find this precious thing."

"You ransacked the basement?" Lucy put on an incredulous expression. "I took so much time to pack it too!"

"Where do you think Rogue, Lector and Frosch are at now?"

"You left them there to clean up?"

"Well… I wanted to pass this to you as soon as possible. I kind of forgot about your guild members, so…" Sting's voice trailed off.

Lucy chuckled, "You also forgot how Natsu hates your guts."

"Speaking of that stupid idiot infuriates me. If it wasn't for his smelly butt, I would have found your thing sooner! You wouldn't believe how strong his smell was in the basement! It almost masked your smell! What were you guys doing in the basement alone anyway?"

Lucy's smile faltered, remembering the events of the past few days. Sting looked at her curiously and if you looked hard enough, there was a hint of fear on his face. Finally, the blonde whispered loudly enough for the dragon slayer, "Natsu confessed to me."

The silence between them was shattering and Lucy bit her lips with worry.

"Did you-"

"No! I didn't tell him about you, us!" Lucy cried. After only a few months of dating, it was amazing how they could read each other so well. "I apologized to him and wanted to reject him properly, but then I realized the bracelet was gone and was, simply said, a wreck afterwards."

"Damn it!" Sting shouted, but cringed in pain afterwards. "I should have punched that guy just now! First, he acts like your boyfriend in front of your guild, then he confesses?"

"Uh, he confessed first," Lucy pointed out.

Sting glanced at Lucy in annoyance. "Heartfilia, read the atmosphere here. Not to mentioned, he served me punches?"

"Can't be helped. I mean, you did-" Lucy trailed off, realizing what she was about to say.

She took a peek at her boyfriend, who had pursed his lips. It's time, Lucy thought. They had dated for more than a month now, and it's time she knew more about her boyfriend and his mysterious past.

She took a deep breath and asked, "Why did you do that? Why did you kill…?"

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><p><strong>Another cliffhanger! I'm evil, muahahaha. Did you guys expect Natsu to find out? Sorry, not yet, but soon. If he finds out this soon, I will have nothing to write about... I'll try not to be late next time round. Max: 2 weeks, okay? (Cross my heart.)<strong>

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><p><strong>As an apology, I will reply to some reviews! (Y^_^Y)<strong>

**To those who have been reminding me to update (Bloody. 5507, jessiemaebay, ichigolover, 333, sersan, CEEBSTOLOGIN... {right, I'm probably the laziest person on the planet}): Thank you for the update reminders! It's readers like you which make me suck in all my laziness (and the moodiness to go onto Words to do my assignments) and start on the fanfic. **

**Violet284: Wow, thanks for the compliment, I'm flattered. (*^^*)**

**BewitchedCupcake: I'm glad that this story has inspired you to write your own. I look forward to reading your story! (^_^)**

**sekushi na sakura subarashi: Thanks for the offer! Keep to your words! I will PM you if I have a writers' block! :P**

**Kanga Rewh: I can't wait to read your Sticy fanfic too! Apoogize once again for being late! **

**Jenny1751: I'm a Nalu fan too, actually! HAHA, keep being a Nalu fan, cos Sticy is really... a canon pairing. As much as it hurts me to say this, I don't think Sting and Lucy will even talk to each other in the manga/anime. **

**Twistedkorn: HAHA, the truth has been REVEALED. It would have been a good idea to have Natsu get the bracelet. But hmmmm...**

**anon: Glad to be able to give you your present! Sorry if it was a little late (or that you have to wait for this chapter...).**

**kuyppi: Thanks for the comment! I'm trying to improve my writing, but I usually only find my errors after posting the story. I'll try to spot my mistakes!**

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><p><strong>There were some reviews feeling bad for Natsu: It pained me to be so cruel to him too. After all, I'm a Nalu fan too... D: But this won't be a Nalu fanfic, although... I do have some ideas in my head for one (but most prob after DEBT).<strong>

**{Shall not continue... For those whose review I didn't reply to, I apologize. PM, or review, if you want me to give you a shout-out! Or you have some suggestions for the story! I welcome criticisms.}**


	9. The truth

**OMG! I'm really, terribly terribly sorry. You guys can scold me all you want! I was soo busy with my assignments that I almost forgot about this story! Like I have said previously, I will NOT abandon this story. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own FT.**

**Hope you enjoy it. :D**

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><p><strong><em>Chapter 8: The Truth<em>  
><strong>

Sting released her and placed his hands by his sides. He gave Lucy a long hard stare, giving her a cold shiver down her spine. Lucy pulled herself away from his gaze, looking down, and found his hands shaking uncontrollably. Slowly, she put her hands onto his. Her eyes widened when she felt the coldness of his skin – it could rival the coolness Gray exerts out.

"Do you really want to know? I don't want to taint your heart," he whispered.

Lucy nodded her head, gripping his hands more tightly. It was time he opened up to somebody, he thought to himself. Finally, Sting took a deep breath and said:

"My dragon parent is, no, was Tanith. She was one of the most majestic and beautiful dragon you ever laid your eyes on, and I really did love her very much. However, in the year X777, she disappeared and I started searching for her. On my journey to look for her, I met Rogue. He, like me, had lost his dragon and we decided to look for them together. At that time, we were twelve, probably the same age as Wendy Marvell now."

"All thanks to the seven years-time skip, or she would have been 19 now, and me, 24."

"Well, I guess things happen for a reason, don't they? If you were this 24 years old lady, would you have given me any notice?"

Lucy smiled gently, remembering the events of the time when she found Sting drunk, "I guess not."

"Anyway, back to the story. During our travels, we heard of many stories about the great Salamander and the other dragon slayers of Fairy Tail. We idolized them. Our dream was to be just like them, hence we decided to head to Fairy Tail. We thought that it would be great if we could join the other dragon slayers and search for our foster parents together. However, during our journey, others taunted us relentlessly. They said that we weren't good enough for Fairy Tail, we weren't strong enough. We got put down a lot and we got bullied a lot."

Lucy glanced at her boyfriend and shifted closer to him, giving him the warmth and the comfort she knew he needed at that moment. She whispered loudly enough for him to hear, "What did they do to you?"

"You wouldn't want to know," Sting shook his head.

"I want to," Lucy gave him a firm nod, urging him to proceed with his story.

"A-at some towns in Zethia, the country just next to Fiore, they tossed us garbage when we asked for food, they duped us into doing hard labour for them when we asked for jobs and when we needed a shelter, th-the only things we got were their snickers and scoffs. Those jerks! Rogue and I were still children then!"

Lucy felt herself tearing up, "Why didn't you fight them?" she shouted, or at least she tried to. Her voice was too shaky to do so.

"I couldn't!" Sting yelled back, tears filling up his eyes too. "I just couldn't. Do you know what does Tanit represents? She wasn't only the dragon of the moon and stars; she was also the dragon of love! Since young, she taught me to love others, she taught me that harming others was a sinful act, she also taught me to forgive! Facing those people who bullied me and Rogue, I felt I was letting her down tremendously. I did not apply what she taught me and I shamed her name. I couldn't love, I couldn't forget and I couldn't help but think of harming those who had denied us of food and shelter! I let her down!"

Lucy felt the tears rolling down her cheek continuously as Sting lashed out. She hurriedly wrapped her arms around the blonde's head and pulled it down towards her chest. Lucy felt his hands slowly going around her waist and she patting his spiky hair down, trying her best to calm the dragon slayer. However, with her also crying for Sting's pitiable childhood, she didn't know how she could sooth the dragon slayer. Suddenly, Sting pushed himself up and took a deep breath, wanting to continue his story.

"You-you don't have to continue," Lucy sobbed, placing her hands on his hard chest.

"I want to," he whispered. "I need to."

Lucy stopped herself from sniffing and nodded. She felt that this was probably the best way Sting could release himself from his traumatic childhood.

"After so much hardship, we finally reached Fiore and we immediately got to Magnolia. The people here were much more hospitable than the people of Zethia; it was somewhat of a culture shock to me and Rogue. We even stayed there for quite a while. Then, something happened. You might not believe it, but we got sucked into another world – a world where magic existed in another form. Rogue and I, we couldn't use our magic in that world."

"Edolas?" Lucy blurted in surprise.

Sting raised his brows, "Edolas? What's that?"

"I-it's the world that you got sucked into, if I'm not wrong."

"How did you know about that world?"

"Long story and it doesn't matter. So, what happened in Edo- the other world?"

"We were quite useless there, being unable to use our magic and all. But we saw Natsu-san, Gajeel-san and Wendy-san fighting this metal dragonoid thing. They were awesome! They actually defeated that thing!"

Lucy saw the sparkle in Sting's eyes and resisted the urge to chuckle. She also noticed that he had included a '-san' behind the names of the three dragon slayer in her guild.

"That's when we decided. Rogue and I decided not to join Fairy Tail. Those three had shown their strength to us and, the townspeople we met at Zethia were right – we were just too weak. We felt embarrassed about our powers and we promised ourselves that we would grow stronger and prove to them that we are strong enough for Fairy Tail in the future. We journeyed away from Magnolia and trained ourselves with our Exceeds, who had joined us after we had returned from the other world. We became freelance mages. Like I said, Fiore is unlike Zethia. The people who had asked for our help gave us not only the reward when we had completed the task; they gave us food and shelter too. Our main goal was to become a great dragon slayer like the Great Salamander and the Black Steel and join Fairy Tail. However, just when we thought that we were strong enough, we heard the tragic news – the team at Tenroujima was defeated by a dragon. Our dreams were shattered. Without Natsu-san, without Gajeel-san, there was no goal for us. Not only were our idols defeated, but they were also defeated by a dragon which they were supposed to slay!"

Sting punched the coffee table just next to the couch he and Lucy were leaning on, in anger. Lucy cringed, unsure if it was for the pain her boyfriend might be feeling on his knuckles, or whether it was the pain of having to buy a new coffee table. The moment she thought that, she resisted the urge to slap herself. How could she think of such things when her boyfriend is telling her his life story!

"We started wandering around Fiore aimlessly. Our goals unclear, our heads full of thoughts, like a fog preventing us to continue our journey. Until one day, Tanit and Kagem came looking for us."

"Your dragons came looking for you guys?" Lucy exclaimed, which was met with a glare from Sting, who looked rather pissed that Lucy interrupted.

"Yes, they did, but that's not the point. They came to us, wanting us to kill them off."

"They wanted what!"

"They wanted us to kill them. They said that by doing so, we could become true dragon slayers. They were afraid that we would be the next one to be destroyed by Acnologia, and they wanted us to gain our, according to them, 'true strength'. We stubbornly refused, of course, but they were adamant. Then Tanit did something I never thought she would do – she threatened me to slay her and if I didn't, she would kill Rogue in front of me. Rogue is my precious nakama. We have been through thick and thin together and I can't imagine what I would do without him. So I did what Tanit asked of me, I slayed her. It was not without a fight, of course, but I suspected Tanit downplayed her strength in order to let me win. The dragons, they were smart – they knew our weaknesses. Kagem threatened Rogue the same way. While we were still in shock, Jiemma found us. I don't know how he knew we had slayed our own dragons,or how he knew about our story, but he did. He told us to join his guild and work together to make it the strongest. We weren't in our right minds when we agreed to join. However, Jiemma revealed his true colours when we entered. He was obsessed with being in the first place and with power. So obsessed, that he forcefully placed a lacrima into us, making us the third generation dragon slayers."

Lucy took Sting's shaking hands into hers and placed her forehead onto his. Her voice shook as she whispered, "It is okay to cry. If you don't want to let out your tears, let me cry for you. I know how you feel when your kin threatens to harm your nakama. I've been through it before. It feels like…the world is crashing on you, doesn't it? You probably hate us, the members of Fairy Tail, don't you? You hate us for losing to Acnologia and thus, causing Tanit to look for you to slay her. It doesn't feel good having to tell Natsu that you slayed your own dragon either, right? I'm so sorry. I apologize for my weakness, for not being able to do more to defeat Acnologia. I apologize for my best friend and my guild. You hate us, don't you? It's what we did which led to the events of today. I apolo-"

"Stop," Sting interrupted, his bangs shadowing his eyes. "Stop apologizing. You are not weak. Fairy Tail is not weak. It is true that I blame Natsu for losing to Acnologia, but I can never hate him, Fairy Tail and much less, you. Natsu was my idol. Fairy Tail was my goal. As for you, Lucy Heartfilia, you are the first girl I fell in love with. I love you, Lucy. I love you so much."

"I-I love you too, Sting Eucliffe," Lucy whispered. She blushed, realizing that this was the first time either of them said 'I love you' to the other half of the relationship.

She felt Sting's face inching closer to hers. His minty breath blew against her cheeks as she tilted her head. She parted her lips slightly and closed her eyes. Her hands crept to his toned chest while his hands snaked around her waists, pulling her closer to him. Finally, their lips met each other and a burst of warmness surged through both of their bodies. His tongue licked the tip of her lips and asked for entrance, to which, his girl allowed. Their mouth moved in sync, both not wanting to let go of the other. Finally, they pulled away from each other, wanting to catch their breath. They glanced shyly at each other, their faces as red as tomatoes. Wanting more, they edged closer to each other again, their lips almost touching… … …

"LUCY! GET AWAY FROM HIM!" the door burst open, revealing a scarlet-head mage, with her face almost the same colour as her hair.

Lucy shrieked and jumped away from her boyfriend. She stared at the 'party' at the entrance of her door and bit her lips, giving Sting a side glance. Not surprising her anymore, Sting had a nonchalant expression on his face.

"H-Hello E-Erza, G-Gray and G-Gajeel, a-and Levy," Lucy stuttered.

At the mention of her name, the solid script mage bowed her head, "Sorry! I tried to stop them, but they knew I was hiding something and… I'm sorry!"

"I-t's alright, thanks for your help, anyway," Lucy tried to keep her cool, but to no avail. She could feel her hands shivering, and teeth chattering with fear. "S-so, w-what are you guys doing here?"

"Shouldn't it be: what is that guy doing here?" Gray scowled.

Erza raised her hands in front of Gray to prevent him from speaking further. "I wanted to look for this person and asked Gajeel to track him down after Natsu left. I did not want to get him riled up. The scent led us to many places, but I most certainly did not expect it to lead us here. And I most certainly did not expect you to be kissing him!"

Lucy felt her face turning red and took a peek at Sting. When Sting caught her eyes, both immediately turned away. The couple's faces were as pink as Natsu's hair from realizing that they had been seen in their first session of making out.

"What did you do to Lucy, you murderer freak!" Gray growled, surprising the others.

"G-Gray," Lucy whimpered.

"Move, Lucy. Someone's going to get hurt, and I don't want it to be you. Besides, you've got some explaining to do once we take care of him. ICE MAKE LANCE!"

Numerous spear lookalikes made of ice formed in front of Gray as he placed both palms in front of himself while facing his enemy, Sting Eucliffe. Everything seemed to happen so fast that before he knew it, Lucy jumped in front of his enemy, wanting to protect him. With her reaction as quick as ever, Erza requipped and kicked all the attacks heading for her nakama.

"Gray, what the heck did you think you were doing?" Erza scolded.

"Lucy! What the heck did you think you were doing?" Gray tried giving an excuse for his attack.

"You were going to attack him! What has he done to you?" Lucy shouted.

"Not to me, but the whole guild in general!"

"Well then, why don't you name me a few?"

"To start off with, he destr-"

"destroyed the guild?" Lucy finished Gray's statement. "Do you have short-term memory? Or are you blind? Sting is right in front of you, all battered up! Furthermore, I remembered him getting beaten up by three other dragon slayers. Let me ask you again, did he destroy the guild?"

"Fine, but do you remember Yukino-san? She was-"

"kicked out by the master of his guild, Jiemma, and Sting had no say in that. Besides, Yukino-chan was close to the twin dragon slayers of Saber Tooth – I don't think she held any grudges against them."

"At the Grand Magic Tournament," Gray started only to be interrupted by Lucy again.

"You were beaten by Rufus-san in that hide-and-seek game, not because you were weak, but because he was strong. In fact, the whole guild is strong, even though I do admit that the way their guild master operates the guild is rather…unpleasant, but that still is not the fault of Sting's."

Gray cursed under the his breath. From that Eisenwald mission – his first mission with Lucy – he had learnt that Lucy was not just a pretty face. That was why, when he had first learnt that Natsu had feelings for his clever blonde nakama, he did not think that Lucy was right for that idiot. Unlike Lucy, Natsu was all brawns (well, to be honest, Gray thought that he had more brawns than that guy) and no brains. That poor guy, getting all cheated by his best friend like that; that was the first time he felt sorry for his rival-slash-nakama.

Gray realized that he was looking on the ground, gritting his teeth tightly. He clenched his fists and looked up. His eyes widened when he saw tears flowing down from Lucy's eyes.

"I'm sorry, Gray, I am so, so super sorry! I, of all people, should know what you went through when you lost at the Grand Mage Tournament, yet I said such harsh words!" Lucy sobbed.

Gray's hand slowly loosened and both arms swung at his sides. "I-I am sorry too. I don't know what came over me. I guess I knew of Natsu's feelings for you and got angry at Sting in his stead. Moreover, you are like a sister to me, and I don't want you to get hurt."

"Gray!" Lucy cried while running into Gray's arms.

Both shared a siblings' moment before the other blonde guy in the room cleared his throat. Sting walked towards the two and pulled them away.

"Time's up," Sting frowned. He chided himself for the jealousy he was feeling in him, completely aware that Gray only had brotherly love towards his girl.

"I am sorry for blaming you for the things that has nothing to do with you, but I still don't approve of you. I mean, you did mur-. Hey, wait a minute!" Gray exclaimed and turned to the strangely silent iron dragon slayer he had almost forgotten about. "Why are you so quiet? I mean, he _is_ Sting Eucliffe of Saber Tooth, the guy who bragged about slaying his dragon parent!"

Lucy shifted uncomfortably and stole a glance at Sting, who had furrowed his eyebrows.

"I heard," Gajeel finally said. "I heard what you said about Tanit."

Shock was evident on the couple's face when Gajeel said it, while confusion painted the rest in the room.

"I don't really care whether or not you are dating Bunny Girl, but what the guild thinks, is not up to me."

"Ga-ga-ga-" Sting stuttered.

"Damn it! Say what you have to say!" Gajeel snapped.

"Gajeel-sama, you don't hate me anymore?"

Lucy and Levy giggled at the sight of a childlike Sting.

"What the hell is with that '-sama'! And who said I don't hate you anymore! I just find it a waste of time to even care about weaklings like you!"

"Huh?" Sting's face did a 360 degree change – an expression full of admiration turned into one fired up for a fight. "Who's weak? If it's anything, you're the weak one!"

"What did you say?"

Gajeel and Sting were glaring at each other face-to-face. Unable to take the noise they were making any longer, Erza picked them up like they were nothing and threw them across the room. Lucy and Levy looked at each other and burst out laughing, receiving weird looks from the rest of the people in the room.

"Nothing, it's just that, I love you guys so terribly much!" She explained herself before rushing towards her nakama and giving them a crushing hug and a peck on Sting's cheeks.

"I love you too, Lucy, but we have more pressing matters to settle," Erza said, her face red from being embarrassed by Lucy's confession. "What are you going to do about Natsu?"

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><p><strong>How was Sting's past? Did you guys like it? Hate it or like it, please comment. I will not be following the manga if Sting's power is actually revealed. <strong>

**I will my best to post on time (I know I say this every week, but I really mean it), and if I do manage to post on time, the chapter might be shorter. Really really really shorter. (almost by half) **

**What do you think of this arrangement? O.O**


	10. What Natsu doesn't know

**Hi, I'm sorry for the long delay, and this chapter is very very short (as compared to the previous chapters). I was busy with a one-shot last week. It's called "What is Strength?" and it is also a Sticy story! ~ Please read it! In my opinion, it is quite similar to chapter 1 of DEBT! **

**Anyways, please enjoy this chapter of DEBT! **

**Disclaimer: I don't own FT, or there would be a love triangle between Natsu, Lucy and Sting. Hiro Mashima owns the characters. **

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 9: What Natsu doesn't know, won't hurt him<strong>_

"_Nothing, it's just that, I love you guys so terribly much!" She explained herself before rushing towards her nakama and giving them a crushing hug and a peck on Sting's cheeks._

"_I love you too, Lucy, but we have more pressing matters to settle," Erza said, her face red from being embarrassed by Lucy's confession. "What are you going to do about Natsu?"_

Lucy looked at Sting, then at Erza, and then at her boyfriend again. She bit her lips and thought about Natsu's confession and his outbursts towards Sting previously. How would he feel if he knew about the relationship between Sting and her? Would he hurt Sting like how he did earlier? The thought of Sting being even more hurt caused her to wince.

"Lucy!" Sting shouted and shook his girl by her shoulders, breaking all her thoughts.

"What?" Lucy said, absentmindedly.

It was only after she said the word that she felt blood overwhelming her taste buds. She wanted to lick her lips, but was halted by the touch of Sting's rough fingertips on her lips. He moved his thumb swiftly across, hoping to remove the blood staining his girlfriend's pure lips. Well, not so pure after that kiss, but still more pure than many others. More blood spurt out from that cut on her lips, causing Sting to finally look into her eyes. Lucy's face was red. Her cheeks were as red as the blood he had just rubbed away.

Feeling the stares of everybody else in the room, Lucy looked away, abashed by the attention she was receiving, "Erm, Erza, do you have any ideas?"

"I do think that Natsu deserves the truth, don't you think so too?"

Lucy remained silent.

"You know, Natsu, he likes you more than a friend," Gray decided to put in his two cents into the situation.

"I know," Lucy whispered, "he confessed."

"Gehe! That idiot actually has that guts?" Gajeel smirked, earning a punch from his blue-headed girlfriend and a glare from Sting, who was wishing that the group would stop talking about his girl's pink-head best friend.

"We kind of already figured it out when you two were having cold war with each other the past few days," Levy said.

"We did?"

Levy gave her boyfriend a look and knitted her eyebrows, "You didn't realize?"

"That's why I should not tell him," Lucy interrupted the conversation between the couple in front of her. "I don't want him to get even more hurt. I think my rejection already saddened him tremendously. If I told him about my relationship with Sting, it would be a double whammy!"

Before she knew it, the tears stared falling again.

"Lucy," Erza called out sternly, yet her voice was full with concern for her friend, "we will help you keep it from Natsu for the time being."

"We will?" Gray asked.

Erza shot Gray a murderous glare and he flinched, before nodding his head fervently with a fake smile plastered onto his face. "Yes, we will. Like Gray, I don't approve of you," jabbing her finger towards Sting, "being with her," jabbing her finger to Lucy this time, "but I understand the mutual feelings you have for each other."

"You do?" Gray raised his eyebrows and the girl who he had always thought of as super dense when it came to the matters of love.

And that earned him a smack on his head, if it weren't for his strength, he would have been dead, or to be more optimistic, in coma.

Suddenly, Erza reequipped into her _Tenrin no Yoroi_, also known as her Heaven's Wheel Armour, and summoned what seemed like a hundred swords, pointing at Sting.

"Sting!" Lucy cried out worryingly.

Ignoring Lucy, Erza warned Sting, "However, if you hurt my precious nakama, this won't be the only bunch of swords you will see pointing at your neck! You got me loud and clear?"

"Aye! I mean, yes, Erza-sama!" Sting flustered.

Sting felt proud of himself, not to mention that he felt his insides melting, as soon as he saw Lucy's sparkling smile and the glow on her face. He knew that getting the approval from her 'family' was something that she had been wishing for ever since they started dating and even though this was only four members of her extremely large family, it was an improvement from just one – Levy. He decided to keep mum about the sort-of double date they had with Rogue and Levy. No doubt that the iron dragon slayer standing in front of him, whom he had newfound respect for, would go ballistic and perhaps, change his mind about slaughtering him. Based on experience from dating the blonde girl, he knew how the power of love could influence the anyone, no matter the guy or the girl, from the relationship – just thinking about Natsu getting close to Lucy could make his blood boil and his strength increase by a hundred times.

"Before I forget, Lucy, I will hide this fact from Natsu, but, I want you to tell him the truth before he finds out. I don't want any of my nakama getting hurt," Erza commanded loudly.

Lucy nodded hesitantly. Part of her, no, every part of her knew that Erza was right. Natsu deserved this much. She remembered scolding Sting when he was at her guild. _If you want to fight it out with Natsu, how about you go home and get rid of your stinky ego before having a real battle with Natsu! He, Gajeel and Wendy deserves more respect than this._ She was probably thinking about herself when she shouted these sentences to Sting. Natsu deserved more respect than this – he is, her best friend after all. She could get rid of her cowardice and have a real talk with Natsu. _So now you're going to spend your life disregarding me, your best friend, and drink all day and night?_ She remembered scolding Natsu too. At that time, she had thought that Natsu was disregarding her and running away from the fact that she had just rejected him. Thinking further, she realized she was wrong. Lucy cringed inwardly at that realization. It was her who was disregarding his confession all along. She had not given him an actual reply to his confession – all she said was a sorry which was interrupted by her missing charm bracelet.

Lucy groaned and slumped onto the floor. She felt like an ass, a bigger ass than any of the enemies she had went against.

Suddenly, she was picked up by a pair of strong arms. Lucy looked up, finding herself staring at her boyfriend's mesmerizing eyes.

"Stop thinking about it!" he scowled. "The more you think about it, the more the answer would not come to you!"

Erza nodded her head in agreement, "Sting is right. I'm not forcing you to tell Natsu now. I do want you to be truthful to him, but I will not be forceful about it."

If Lucy was any mood to laugh, she would have, for the moment Erza completed her sentence, Sting nodded too. The sight of them agreeing with each other was simply a sight to behold.

"You know what you need?" Sting asked, while his head bobbed up and down.

"What?" Gajeel, Levy and Gray asked in unison.

Lucy shot them weird looks before raising her own eyebrows.

"A date."

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Sting felt himself regretting for that impulsive comment – Erza had requipped her sharpest sword and pointed it to Sting's neck.

"Woah!" Sting cried while Lucy gasped in horror. "I thought you said you approved of our relationship?"

"I apologize," Erza gave Sting a ninety degrees bow. "It was a reflex action."

Lucy let out a sigh of relief, knowing that her friends were probably okay with her boyfriend.

"As a matter of fact, I have a pair of tickets to this new theme park at Espiree. It was from the previous mission I did. The client was one of the shareholders of the theme park and decided to give it to me. You should have seen his house – it was humongous! The only thing that got onto my nerve was that loud bulldog. I wonder if it managed to get itself down from the roof after barking at me like that. But then again, it deserved it."

The whole room sweatdropped at that comment.

Brave ol' Gray decided that the input of his opinions was necessary, "Erm, Erza, I think you shouldn't have–"

"Shouldn't have what?" Erza glared at him, making the ice-maker magician shiver under her glare.

"Nothing," Gray squeaked, earning snorts of laughter from a certain iron dragon slayer.

"Anyways, I was saying, as my congratulation gift, I would like both of you to have these tickets," Erza cleared her throat.

"Aw, Erza, thanks!" Lucy exclaimed and jumped onto the redhead, giving her tight hug.

Sting, on the other hand, snickered, "Hmmph, I could get my hands on those tickets whenever I want!"

"What did you say about my gift?" Erza began to requipped.

"Nothing, Erza-sama! Thank you very much, Erza-sama!"

"Good. We will cover you from Natsu. You treasure this time with that guy and clear your mind."

"We will have your back!" Levy winked.

"You guys," Lucy started tearing up, "I love you!"

"But on one condition," Erza interrupted that touching moment, "We are coming along with you."

"WHAT?" Sting, Lucy, Gray, Levy and Gajeel shouted all at the same time.

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><p><strong>R&amp;R!<strong>

**I really apologize for such a short story after almost 3 weeks! And I'm afraid that the next chapter might take that long too, my exams are in a week or so! I'm terribly sorry! Good news is that the story is all planned out in my head! & that I'm writing the next chapter already! :D**


	11. Guilt

**Hi, I'm back! My exam ended yesterday and I rushed out this chapter, so it might be a little short. The subsequent chapters are going to get interesting! **

_**IMPORTANT!: With the recent updates of the manga, please ignore the part where Lucy gets tortured by Minerva and so on! Sting's power might be a little different in this story, but I shall think about it if there are any fighting scenes in the future as it would be difficult or me to come up with attacks. And it would be rather confusing if they were too different. So, just take note!. **_

**Hope you guys like it! (^u^) **

**Disclaimer: I don't own FT. **

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 9: Guilt<strong>_

"_But on one condition," Erza interrupted that touching moment, "We are coming along with you."_

"_WHAT?!" Sting, Lucy, Gray, Levy and Gajeel shouted all at the same time._

"You can't be serious!" Gray and Sting exclaimed at that daring announcement made by Erza. No, it was more like an order.

"Wait a minute, who's 'we'"? Levy questioned, tapping her chin, while looking at Gajeel from her peripheral vision.

"You, Gray, Gajeel and I," Erza answered.

"All of you?!" Sting shouted again.

Stomping up to Lucy, he grabbed his girlfriend by her wrist rather forcefully, and pulled her over to one corner of the room, far away from that bunch of, in Sting's opinion, crazy idiots.

"Is Erza being serious?" Sting whispered fiercely.

"She never jokes around," Lucy sighed. As much as she knows that Erza was being concerned about her, she wished that the redhead was not being serious. She did not want her date with Sting to be awkward and it would definitely be with the presence of her guild mates. But then again, the redhead was known for being dense when it came to the matters of the heart.

"I can't be with too many Fairies at a time! It's suffocating!"

Lucy scowled, "Oh yeah? I didn't know being with me was so tough on you!"

"I-I didn't mean it that way," Sting bit his lips, not wanting to fight with his girlfriend at this somewhat-crucial moment.

Lucy sighed, "Fine, I will see what I can do."

Sting put on a huge grin before pushing Lucy back to her nakama eagerly.

"H-Hey E-Erza?" Lucy stuttered, afraid of what this fearless woman would do if she went against her wishes.

"Hmmm?" Erza glared.

"H-How a-about…notallofyouguysgo!" Lucy blurted out, all in a breath, shutting her eyes really tightly the moment the words left her mouth.

Sting's jaws dropped. Lucy was supposed to ask for alone time, not for a triple date to be reduced to a double date! He frowned deeply, despite knowing that there was nothing much he could do about it. He knew that on the "Do not defy" list, Erza was on the top three, next to Master Jiemma and Minerva. Sting shuddered, wondering what those two would do if they knew he was dating Lucy Heartfilia of Fairy Tail.

"Why?" Erza asked, glaring at Sting.

"B-B-Because," Lucy thought for a while before blurting, "Natsu!"

"Natsu?" Erza rose her eyebrows.

"Yes, Natsu. Wouldn't he be suspicious if one whole bunch of us goes on a vacation without him?"

Erza nodded her head thoughtfully and tapped her chin, thinking of a solution.

"So, how about Gajeel and Levy go, while you and Gray stay behind? I think two of them are enough," Lucy suggested, giving a wink to Levy when she thought that nobody was looking.

Levy caught her wink and turned as red as a lobster, knowing what her best friend was insinuating. It was the perfect chance for her to have a date with Gajeel! She sneaked a peek at the said guy, who raised an eyebrow after Lucy's suggestion.

"Huh?! Why would I want to go with that guy?!" Sting protested, earning him an elbow in the ribs from his girlfriend and a glare from the iron dragon slayer.

"Why the hell would I want to go with you?!" Gajeel retorted.

Lucy looked at Levy's crestfallen face and she smacked her palm onto her forehead. She forgot. That dragon slayer too, was a dense idiot.

"Enough of this argument!" Erza shouted sternly, causing everybody in the room to freeze up. "I have come to a decision! Gray shall stay behind, while the rest of us go!"

Sting's and Gray's jaws dropped. For Sting, it was mostly because it was not really much difference from the initial plan.

"Why do I have to be the one to stay behind?!" Gray objected. How unfair was it? He, too, wanted to go to the theme park at Espiree! He had heard that there was an ice castle there and was really thrilled when he heard that he had the chance to go there, even though it had to be with them.

"I have a special mission for you: distract Natsu."

"What?!" Gray exclaimed. "Why?! Why can't _you _be the one to distract him?! I want to go to Espiree too, you know!"

"What did you say?!" Erza bellowed, earning Gray a smack in his head, on top of the one that he had been given earlier.

No further questions were asked, even though there were many questions on their mind. Why does Erza want to follow on their date, alone? Why was there a need for Levy and Gajeel to tag along? Everyone knew that nothing could change Erza's mind and if anyone tried, it would not be too good.

The next day, with their plan discussed, Sting went back to his own guild after assuring Lucy that he was fit enough to return.

Lucy bit her lips as she stood outside the guild entrance. Before she could think of anything else, the door opened in front of her and a pink-haired mage tackled her onto the floor.

"I'm sorry for yesterday, I-I should have known," Natsu mumbled. "I should have known how you felt about the Phantom Lord inccident yet I argued with you. I don't want to fight with you anymore, we just patched back and I miss my best friend."

Lucy giggled and sat up, hugging him back. Tears filled her eyes. She was truly delighted to be back with her best friend, but she was also overwhelmed with guilt – guilt of what she and her other friends were hiding from him and what they were going to do. Probably that was what the tears were for. Guilt.

Despite her guilt and her worries, Levy kept convincing her that even though it was wrong to keep it from Natsu, there had to be a right time to tell him, and now wasn't the best time. After all, both dragon slayers had just fought and there was a more important thing that she should be concerned about right now and that was to convince Erza that Sting was not the person that she thought he was. Even though Erza had approved of their relationship, Lucy and Levy knew that she still had doubts about the white dragon slayer. Not to mention Erza, but Gray too, had some trust issues with Sting. If both of them could see how Sting really was, it would be easier telling Natsu, and convincing him that Sting and her were truly into each other. The other guild members too, would trust Erza's judgement.

Hence, the plan was carried out in the following week.

"Natsu!" Gray shouted across the guild hall. "You flame brain! You burnt my underwear, didn't you!"

"Huh?! Why would I waste my time on such thing?!" Natsu countered, not really interested in what Gray was saying. He just wanting to finish his spicy ramen.

"You weakling! Don't deny it! I know you wanted me to…uh…" Gray stuttered momentarily, forgetting his lines.

"Lose in that challenge you guys came up with last week!" Levy piped in, giving Gray a helping hand.

Help, yeah right, thought Gray. Levy had landed him in a situation where he did not know how to get out of. Erza had came up with the script herself and apparently, they were supposed to fight over who had the more sexier body. The others could not say much, but they were thinking to themselves that they should prevent Erza from taking any job requests that have to do with performing arts.

"Challenge?" Natsu asked, not knowing what they were talking about. "What challenge?" He, of all people, would know such challenges, _especially _if he was in it to win it.

Gray shot a glare at Levy for landing him in this situation, for he had no idea what to say now.

"You mean you forgot? Gray challenged you last week. To see who could finish the most missions last week!" Lucy's quick wits saved the day.

"Yea! You must have been so afraid of losing that you burnt my underwear so that I would slow down and complete less job requests! You weakling, flame-for-brain!"

"What the hell did you say?!" Natsu shouted, finally unable to accept the insults that he was receiving from his icy rival. Furthermore, he had zilch memory of the incident they were talking about, but decided to keep mum, lest Gray makes fun of his memory.

Natsu shoved his face right in front of Gray's and growled, "Who are you calling 'weakling', weakling? Would I resort to dirty means to win this dumb competition? Besides, you hardly wear your underwear, why would you care whether I burn it or not?! Stripper!"

"Stripper?! Who are you calling a str- ACK!" Gray was in a middle of a comeback when he realized his clothes were missing. "IT MUST BE BECAUSE OF YOU! YOU STOLE MY CLOTHES!"

"WHY THE HELL WOULD I WANT TO DO THAT?!"

And like this, a fight ensued accordingly. Alas, Erza snapped. Well, it was planned, but somehow she was more intolerant to the noise that she had thought she would be. Lucy and Levy gave a little high five and a wink.

During the unnecessary practices that Erza had forced them to attend to make sure that their plan would be successful, Erza had acted, well, rather horrendously. It made them slightly anxious. For if she was to perform like that, everyone would know that it was all an act. Gray was slightly panicky, but the two bookworms came up with a sub-plan. They told Gray to 'just attack Erza's cake'.

Well, Erza's cake wasn't 'attacked', but somehow, the two females knew that there was a high chance that Erza could not put up with the chaos the two rivals were creating. Gray felt relieved; he didn't want to imagine what would happen to him if something happened to Erza's precious cake. The relief Gray felt was short-lived – Erza went up to the both of them and knocked their head together, causing them to fall on the floor. She stormed towards them and threw a piece of paper in their faces.

"Complete this mission together and stay with each other for a week! When I return, I want to see you two as very good friends! You understand me?!" Erza scowled.

"A-aye!" Gray and Natsu nodded their heads in unison. "WAIT, WHAT?!" they shouted immediately as soon as Erza's command processed in their heads.

"So that what you were hiding!" Gray blurted, pointing a finger at Erza.

Gajeel's quick reflex, after realizing Gray said, allowed him to throw a metal rock onto Gray's head, shutting him up immediately. Thankfully, no one realized a thing.

Gray rubbed his head and frowned. Erza had only ordered him to start a fight with Natsu, but she never knew what she was going to do afterwards. He could accept anything, anything but wasting his time with that idiot!

"Why do I have to do a mission with him?!" Natsu complained.

"Because I said so!" Erza thundered, causing the whole guild to shiver.

"A-Aye!"

"Tomorrow! Eight in the morning, at the train station!"

"Come on, Happy, let's go home and pack our bags," Natsu grumbled.

"No, I'm not going! I'm staying with Wendy and Charle! If I'm with you two, I'll probably not get any sleep or any work done!" Happy stuck out his tongue and flew towards Charle, who turned her head to the opposite direction.

"Happy! You betrayer!" Natsu cried. "Lucy, what about you? Come along with us! We are partners!"

"No! Only you two can go! No exceeds and no partners!" Erza replied for Lucy.

Lucy shrugged and took Natsu by the hands and dragged him out of the guild.

* * *

><p>"Hey Lucy, stay safe while I'm gone, okay?" Natsu interrupted suddenly as Lucy was scolding him about starting a fight with Gray every day.<p>

"Uh, okay? What is this all about? Did you offend somebody again?" Lucy stopped and crossed her arms.

"N-no, there's this weird feeling that something is going to happen."

"Don't worry! I'll be with Erza! And I can protect myself!" Lucy gave him a hard pat to his back, causing him to fall forward.

Just as Lucy wanted to continue walking, Natsu grabbed her wrists.

"Lucy, whatever I am going to do next, promise me you will not be angry?"

Lucy looked at him suspiciously, "What are you going to do?"

"Relax! I'm not going to kiss you or anything similar!"

Lucy flushed and murmered, "I never said you were going to do anything like that. And please don't."

"Then promise me. A celestial mage never breaks her promise, right?"

"Fine, I promise. A celestial mage never breaks her promise."

A cold metallic thing touched her skin as soon as she said that. Lucy became wide-eyed as soon as she saw what was on her wrists. It was the exact same bracelet that Sting had given her! Two of the same bracelets hung on her wrists.

"N-Natsu, what is this?" Lucy stuttered.

"You promised not to be angry!" Natsu exclaimed.

"N-No, I'm not angry. It's just, is this bracelet…?"

"Yeah, it was the one that was missing when we were helping the person clean up his house."

"Y-You took it?"

Natsu nodded his head silently, not knowing how to explain. He was never too good with words and he was worried that everything he wanted to say would come out wrong.

"Actually, it fell out, and I didn't realize it was with me until we stopped talking that time. I wanted to return it to you already. I knew how frantic you were losing it, but I couldn't find the right time to return it to you especially after we fought."

Lucy continued to stare at the returned bracelet and Natsu decided to babble on.

"To be honest, I thought that someone gave you this, and I wanted to find out who was it. But then, I saw the exact same one on your wrists, and realized that you most probably bought it because you liked it a lot. Am I right?"

Lucy looked up, forcing back her tears and the lump in her throat and nodded, "Thanks Natsu."

That night, as Lucy got ready her bag for the theme park, her mind was full of thoughts. She sighed and held up the two bracelets in front of her. Natsu didn't look like he was lying, but she believed Sting too. Lucy was confused. Just who was telling the truth?

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><p><strong>Who was telling the truth, and who was lying? What do you guys think? Review! <strong>

**I will definitely post the next chapter by next week! **


	12. Hiding Something

**So sorry for not updating last week, I was away on a camp! But here's chapter 11. Had some problems regarding the format and uploading so... yeah.**

**Anyways, many people felt that Sting was lying in the previous chapter, mainly because Natsu is (somewhat) incapable of lying to his nakama. Well, that's one of the many values we like about him, no? However, I hate to be so evil, but we will not get to find out who was lying in this chapter. Sorry guys.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.**

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 10: Hiding Something<strong>  
><em>

_Just who was telling the truth?_

"When I return, I want to see you two being the best of friends! You understand me?" Erza thundered in the middle of the train station, causing everyone to look at her.

Natsu and Gray immediately put their arms around each other and stuttered, "Yes mdm!"

Lucy chuckled, "Have fun, you guys!"

Gray gave Lucy a sharp glare, to which, Lucy avoided sheepishly. She remembered Gray looking for her this morning, before she left the house for the train station.

_One hour earlier…_

"Gray! What are you doing here?!" Lucy exclaimed as she opened the door.

"A good morning to you too," Gray responded sarcastically.

"Good morning to you. I hope you did not wake up from the wrong side of bed today, but seeing your grumpy mood, I have every reason to believe so. Hope you're feeling alright."

"You think? Sorry, not really looking forward to spending time with that idiot," Gray sighed.

"Sorry," Lucy blurted out, "it's my fault that Erza's forcing you to go to this bonding camp with Natsu."

"It's okay, I don't really blame you. If our reaction to the fact that you're dating that dumb blonde from Saber Tooth was this extreme. Okay, it wasn't as extreme as it sounds. No, in fact, it's not extreme at all."

"Stop trying to justify yourself," Lucy rolled her eyes. "You were the only one who had an extreme reaction to it. Gajeel was surprisingly calm over it and Erza… going to the extremes is kind of normal for her."

"True that. Anyway, I'm here to tell you something. Something to reassure you. If I know you as well as I think I do, you tend to overthink about things. It's bad for your health. Don't worry about Natsu, I won't reveal a thing to him."

"So now you've become my personal doctor? Just joking. Thanks for your concern, but I wasn't really worried about that. I trust you more than you think I do."

"I'm touched," Gray rolled his eyes and half smirked, causing Lucy to giggle.

Lucy was more concern over the bracelet incident and she could not stop thinking about it all night. She was more than eighty per cent convinced that Sting was lying, and she had to think of a way to talk to him about it. Without the presence of Levy, Gajeel and Erza, of course, and this would be a difficult task seeing how Erza will be so fixated about Sting that she would probably have her eyes on them the whole time at Espiree.

"I know I was really negative about your relationship with Sting, but Lucy, you are almost like a sister to me and I am really trying to accept Sting."

Lucy smiled and walked up to Gray, giving him a light hug, "I know, and I'm really thankful for that. Plus, you have every reason to be wary of Sting."

"Glad you understand, anyways, we'll take one small step at a time, okay? Get Erza to approve Sting first. If she does, you don't have to worry about me – I will have no further questions asked. During the mission, I will try to get the idea of you dating someone else across to Natsu. Once he accepts that thought, then we will, perhaps, let him know about Sting?"

Lucy widened her eyes at Gray's idea. She wondered how long it took Gray to come up with that, given that she had initially thought that the ice mage would be all over the fact that he has to be with Natsu for almost a week.

However, before Lucy could even express her gratitude, Gray instantly said, "You owe me one, though. I still can't believe I have to do a mission with Natsu. Alone. Thanks a lot, Lucy."

Lucy jokingly gave a curtsey and giggled, "You're welcome. And really, thanks, Gray."

_Back to present…_

"I'm going to miss the noise you guys make at the guild, so come back soon, okay?" Lucy grinned.

"Lucy, you weirdo, we're only going for a week! Besides, who wants to stay with the stripper!" Natsu pat Lucy's back, a little too hard.

"What did you call me, you idiot?!" Gray retorted.

Soon, they were back to their usual routine – them fighting and Erza banging their heads together.

"I take back my words," Lucy muttered. "Please don't come back soon. Please take your time!"

Once the duo's train left, Erza called Levy and Gajeel to come out of their hiding place, with all their luggage. Lucy immediately saw Gajeel's pissed look on his face.

"Why do I have to look after all these dumps? Wait, why am I even going on a trip with Erza and that blond idiot?" Gajeel mumbled as he lugged everything towards them, not to mention, Erza's mountain load of belongings.

"Because Erza said so," Levy hissed, tired of iron dragon slayer's complains.

And that was enough to shut him up.

"Alright, let's go!" Lucy cheered.

"What about white dragon boy?" Gajeel asked.

"Oh, he's boarding the train when it makes a stop at Barcy. He's there for a mission with Rogue."

Gajeel raised his studded brows and gave Lucy a look. A confused look. With the exceptionally sharp hearing he has, he could pick out the eagerness Lucy had in her voice. Or he could say the _lack_ of eagerness. To add on, there was a sense of fear and anxiety in her voice. The iron dragon slayer gritted his teeth. He would make those two third generation slayers from that idiot guild pay if they hurt his guild mate, especially bunny girl. Lucy was somewhat special to him – besides the fact that she was a certain blue-head mage's best friend, who, if he may add would soon be his girlfriend if he could find the right time and place at Espiree to ask her out, but he digressed. Gajeel felt extremely guilty and grateful towards Lucy. Under Jose's orders in his previous guild, he had tortured Lucy really severely, but that girl still accepted him into the guild with a warm smile and an opened heart. To that, he was really thankful, albeit she did take a long time to warm up to him, but that could not be helped.

The fact that he has, somewhat, accepted Sting Eucliffe has nothing to do with whether or not he will beat that white dragon slayer up if he were to bully the blond celestial mage. Levy had been quite shocked to hear that he had acknowledged Sting, the guy who got him so infuriated when he had gone so near the guild. However, anyone's hatred would have dissolved after hearing his childhood story, and the real reason why he had slayed his dragon. Long story short, it wasn't Sting's fault.

"Urgh, why are we on the train!" Sting whined, breaking his thoughts.

Gajeel became more alert, realising that they had arrived at the place where Sting and his pal would board the train. In fact, Gajeel was surprised that he didn't feel any motion sickness during the trip! He put on a smug smile, feeling so proud of himself. He should have some more of these deep thoughts often.

"Oi, Luce, move over!" Sting shouted.

Gajeel glanced sideways, wanting to have a peek on how the two lovers will act. Instead of acting lovey dovey, he caught Lucy shifting uncomfortably and avoiding eye contact with her boyfriend. Gajeel frowned. Was Lucy being shy about her affections around the others or…?

"Go sit with Rogue!" Lucy retorted back, trying to mask all the discomfort she had earlier.

"Ahahaha!" Lector and Frosch laughed, "Your girlfriend doesn't want to sit with you!"

"Fine, Rogue, come here!"

"I'm going to sit with Lucy-san. I hate train rides," Rogue deadpanned, walking expressionlessly towards the stretch of sit next to Lucy.

"What?! She's my girl! I'm sitting next to her too!"

"SHUT UP AND JUST GRAB A SEAT!" Erza screamed, finally being unable to take it. She served Sting a punch in the stomach just as he was about to take his seat.

Eventually, Lucy was squashed in between the two third generation slayer. Upon seeing Lucy's face turn into different shades of red, Gajeel snickered. The girl was definitely shy, alright, nothing to worry about.

Finally, the announcement came. "This train is departing for Espiree. This train is departing for Espiree."

"Hey, are you alright? You've been really quiet," Levy asked Gajeel.

"Why? Worried?" Gajeel smirked, making Levy regret for even opening her mouth and turn as red as Lucy was now. "Nah, I'm fi-" but before he could finish his sentence, he turned green and groaned loudly.

Sting had similar reaction as Gajeel while Rogue just turned pale. The train has started moving.

On the contrary to what Gajeel was thinking, Lucy was not feeling shy. Well, not really anyway. Okay, maybe a lot, but who wouldn't be when there were two hot guys sitting so close to her?! However, she could only mostly think about the lie that Sting had fabricated. She slapped herself mentally. Well, like they say, innocent until proven guilty. _Mostly _innocent anyway.

With so many thoughts on in Lucy's head, they arrived at Espiree sooner than she had expected.

The moment they stepped out of the train station, their eyes sparkled. The whole place was mind-blowing! This was simply paradise! There was something for everyone! There was the water resort for the water lovers, the artificial volcano for mages like Natsu, a theme park for the couples and family and the list should probably stop here, or there will be no end. In short, they understood why Espiree was also called _The Land of Fun Funs_.

"C-Come on, let's check into our hotel first," Erza stuttered, as she resisted the urge to jump into the bouncing cupcake meant for kids.

Poor Gray, Lucy thought as she caught sight of Snow City, he would have loved this.

"Achoo!" Gray sneezed loudly as he walked with the just-exited-train-therefore-insanely-joyous Natsu.

"Oh man," he groaned, "why am I stuck with this idiot here while they are enjoying themselves us Espiree?"

"Huh?" Natsu asked, popping in front of the ice mage's sight. "Who's enjoying themselves at Espiree?"

"W-what? D-did I-I say that? I-I meant when I could be enjoying myself at Espiree!"

"I was sure I heard 'themselves'."

"You heard wrong!" Gray cried, exasperated.

After Natsu was convinced he had heard wrongly, _which_, was a chore since that fire dragon slayer was convinced that his hearing ability was perfect, Gray let out a loud sigh.

"For Lucy," he chanted, but inside, he wondered how far more he could spend with this dense idiot.

_Back at Espiree…_

"Whoever said I'm going to let you share a room with Lucy?!" Erza scowled, dragging Lucy away from her boyfriend's arms.

Sting smirked, "It's Lucy's choice, and Lucy wants to be with me."

"Actually, Sting, I wanna share room with Levy," Lucy mumbled loud enough for Sting to hear.

"WHAT?! NO WAY!"

Erza gave a triumphant grin.

"E-eh, Lu-chan? I thought you would want to share a room with Sting, so I agreed with Gajeel that I would share a room with..." Levy's voice went softer, "him."

"Eh! Levy-chan! You are going to take that step with him? W-When did you guys…!" Lucy exclaimed.

"S-shut up, Bunny Girl! It's not like that!" Gajeel became red and stuttered.

"So that means I'm sharing room with Lucy right?" Sting went back into the conversation.

"NO!" Erza clashed his head against Gajeel's. "Did you not hear Lucy? She does not want a same room with you!"

"And I wonder why too," Sting muttered, rubbing his head and groaning in pain. He had been trying to make eye contact with Lucy ever since they met, but it seems like all Lucy could do was to avoid it. He frowned when she did that again.

"But why me too?" Gajeel groaned, rubbing his head as well.

"You are not sharing a room with Levy!" Erza commanded.

"I don't want to share rooms with the other idiots from Sabertooth!"

"Hey! That's mean!" Frosch scolded but nobody paid any attention to him. Suddenly, Rogue grabbed him from the air and hugged Frosch against his chest and brushed through his fur, causing Frosch to purr.

"OKAY! THAT'S IT! ENOUGH OF THE NOISE!" Erza hollered, and blushed when she found many eyes at the lobby on her. "Ahem, okay, this will be the final arrangement. Fairy Tail mages, I'll book family deluxe suite. I will take the master bedroom, Levy and Lucy will take one of the bedroom and Gajeel, the couch. As for Sabertooth mages, you will-"

"Don't worry about us, we got our accommodations covered," Rogue spoke up, letting go of Frosch.

"Okay, then this issue is settled."

"Eh! B-but I wanted to be in the same room as Lucy!" Sting complained, earning himself a punch in the gut from Erza.

"O-Ouch," Sting groaned, but he recovered immediately when he saw Lucy pulling her luggage away. Sting put a hand onto her shoulders, noticing that his girl had jumped slightly upon contact, and said, "Hey, Luce, I've got something to talk to you about. Let's walk slower."

The fluster on Lucy's face was evident as she stammered, "H-huh? Oh! I think Erza's glaring at us! I better go in front and walk with her!"

Sting frowned as Lucy ran up to Erza, who was not even looking behind at them but was trying hard not to look excited at the simulation arena, unfortunately for the Requip mage, the gleam in her eyes was undeniable. If it was not evident that Lucy was avoiding him before, it was now. Sting clenched his fist tightly, determined to get Lucy alone so that he can find out what was going on with her. Or perhaps, _them_.

Lucy so desperately wanted to knock herself unconsciously. So much for alone time with Sting to have a talk with him! She was given this chance yet she had rejected it! She scolded herself as she tried to match up with Erza's pace and tried to ignore the stare she could feel burning down her back.

"Well, well, well," a mage stood behind the pillars, watching them as he adjusted his flamboyant hat which sat on his head perfectly, "it looks like the reporter was somewhat right. Those two have indeed been hanging out with the fairies, but I am going to need more convincing to actually believe that Sting Eucliffe is dating Lucy Heartfilia. I wonder what _she's_ going to do when _she_ gets here, especially since it's Lucy Heartfilia."

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><p><strong>Sooo… How was it? Who do you think is the mysterious person in this chapter? A hint: We know this person from the manga. Feel free to give me your thoughts in the review! :D<strong>

**R&R!**

**See ya!**


	13. Confessions, Confessions

**I know I'm super late with this chapter, but I was really busy in addition to a writer's block! _ Anyways, last chapter was super predictable, and almost everyone got it correct. But, they won't be appearing too soon! **

**My chapters won't be posted constantly but I will try my best! (Gambatte! _) I've got lots of assignments and project and can barely find the time to read other fanfics, much less work on my own. **

**Oh, and Happy Holiday! **

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><p><strong><em>Chapter 11: Confessions, Confessions<em>  
><strong>

The two blondes standing next to her and the two dark hair dragon slayers gulped as they see the corkscrews and the loops belonging to this attraction. Their eyes followed the long train which was full of screaming passengers going uphill, downhill and in circles and soon, their eyes were wide with horror. For the three dragon slayers, well, they felt nauseous just looking at it. Even Rogue, who was usually pokerfaced, could not mask the fear inside of him. They could feel their breakfast forcing its way out of their throats. Lucy, the only thing she thought of when she saw the attraction was the time when they were sucked into Edolas through the Anima. The crazy ride on the roller coaster in Edolas still gave her the chills whenever she saw thrilling rides as such.

"I don't think I'll be riding this one. Sorry Levy-chan," Lucy apologized.

"Then I shall stay here and accompany Lucy!" Sting announced, putting his arms around his girlfriend.

"Why, you scared?" Gajeel snickered.

"What did you say?! Who's scared of what?!"

The two immature dragon slayers went head to head. You could see the nerves popping out of their foreheads. And thus, those two were dragged to the guaranteed-motion sickness ride by Erza, who was getting sick and tired of the fighting, leaving Rogue, Frosch and Lucy.

Lucy shifted uncomfortably. The non-existence of words between the silent dragon slayer and the usually bubbly celestial mage was getting awkward even though his Exceed was talking really enthusiastically to her. Lucy bit her lips. Part of her wanted to talk to Rogue – she wanted to know more about her boyfriend's best friend – while another part of her did not want to interrupt the cute Exceed dressed as a frog. She was still staring at Frosch, and not really listening, when suddenly, Frosch's words caught her ears.

"Wait a minute," Lucy interrupted, "did I hear you say something about failing your mission?"

Frosch nodded his head, giving his partner, who was his usual self, a side glance. Lucy then realized that the Exceed was not his usual happy self. Instead, the cat was biting its lips.

"What's wrong, Frosch? Did I say something wrong?" Lucy asked, full of concern for the usually carefree cat-like creature.

Suddenly, the Sabertooth mage who had been watching silently at the sidelines squatted down next to his Exceed. He gently patted Frosch's head and on his face, was a seemingly kind smile. Lucy, even though a little shocked, smiled unconsciously at the scene in front of her. After dating Sting and knowing his past, such scenes should not be a surprise to her any longer, but still, she was a sucker to such heartwarming sights.

"Jiemma-sama will be mad when he hears of our failure. Will Fro disappear? Will Rogue disappear?" Frosch weeped, grabbing on to Rogue's cape tightly. Lucy could see the fear in the Exceed's eyes and his trembling fists.

"You won't disappear. I am by your side after all. I will protect you," Rogue soothed.

"Lucy-san, can Fro and Rogue join your guild if Jiemma-sama exiles us?"

"Sure! The more the merrier!" Lucy's bright smile lighted up Frosch's face. "What was your mission about anyway? Must be tough if the twin dragons of Sabertooth actually failed it."

"Sounds like you're adding salt to the wound," Rogue deadpanned.

Lucy let out an awkward laughter and looked from Rogue to Frosch and back again.

"Let Fro tell you!" Frosch exclaimed, not really noticing the tension between the two mages. Or perhaps, it was all in Lucy's head.

"We were supposed to find a wanted group! They escaped from the clutches of Magic Council for a few years now!" Frosch waved his hands animatedly, as if he was telling an exciting story.

"_Clutches of_…?" Lucy forced a laugh, "Probably an appropriate phrase that you should not let them hear you saying."

"We heard from a source that the group would be in Barcy and we went there to chase them! But they managed to escape even though Rogue and Sting put up a long fight. Rogue said we could ask Erza-sama for help, though!"

"Erza?"

"But Sting said he didn't want to ask the Fairies for help! He wanted to rely on his own strength!"

"That guy was so stubborn; he did not want to listen to us. He was out all night trying to find some leads but he failed. Naturally, he was in a terrible mood. The only thing keeping him happy was the thought of seeing his girlfriend. Who would have thought? His girlfriend kept avoiding him," Rogue suddenly interrupted and said a bunch of stuff that felt out of character for him, while looking at Frosch.

"I-I wasn't avoiding him!" Lucy stuttered, partially trying to defend herself and partially shocked by Rogue's sudden change in personality.

However, the moment the words were out of her she felt terribly guilty.

"I'm such an idiot!" Lucy whispered, her tears threatening to fall out. "Why am I ignoring Sting for such a small thing like this? So what if he was lying!"

"Lying?" Rogue raised his brows.

"The bracelet. He didn't actually find it for me, did he? He bought a replacement," Lucy explained.

"Is there some kind of misunderstanding?"

"After seeing Lucy-san cry over the lacrima that day, Sting completed the mission half-heartedly, forcefully dragged himself and Rogue on a train and ransacked some person's house. When he got what he wanted, he left us to clean up his mess! Lector was pretty angry about it," Frosch giggled, remembering Lector's grumbles on that particular day.

"He…did?" Lucy widened her eyes.

"He sure did! Like a lovesick fool, he ran to Magnolia!"

"Only to get beaten up by the dragon slayers in Fairy Tail," Rogue said in his usual indifferent style, causing Lucy to feel more of the guilt pangs.

"S-shut up!"

Realizing the stupidity of her actions, Lucy's eyes welled up and soon, tears streamed down her face. Without saying a word, she ran towards the exit of the ride. At the same time, or Lucy was thinking, at the _right _time, Sting and Gajeel stumbled out of the exit, walking extremely unsteadily after that nauseating roller coaster ride, along with a smiling Lector, Levy and Erza.

At that moment, Lucy ran towards the blonde dragon slayer and crashed herself against his rock-hard chest, ignoring the fact that there were many people looking. Even all the well-defined abs belonging to Sting could not protect him from Lucy's strong headbutt. In addition, he was still very, very, very dizzy and wobbly from the hellish ride he was just on. With that, Sting fell on his back, while Lucy, on his chest.

Sting groaned as he rubbed his head. "L-Luce? W-what's wr-ong?" He tried to sound genuinely concern, but failed due to the bile threatening to exit his mouth.

"I'm so stupid! I'm so stupid!" Lucy cried and hit her boyfriend's chest repeatedly.

Sting immediately covered his mouth and with the other hand, he supported himself and Lucy. Unable to stop Lucy's fists, Sting looked at the other three Fairy Tail members painfully.

"Lu-chan, what's wrong?" Levy asked.

"Let's find a place for you guys to talk. Don't make a scene here," Erza commanded and helped Lucy up. Lucy nodded quietly and accepted her help.

They went looking for a café and found one soon. The whole time, Lucy clutched onto Sting's hands tightly, not letting go. Once at the café, they sat at different tables, the rest giving the couple enough privacy to talk. Well, at least for Erza, it was enough privacy.

"Hey, Erza, we should go a little more further, don't you think so?" Levy whispered.

"Are you saying that the place I chose is no good?" Erza bellowed.

"Eep!" Levy squealed. "I just want to give Lu-chan a bit more privacy."

"I need to keep an eye on that bastard to see if he bullies her!"

However, the moment she said that sentence, her eyes caught sight of the cake at the table next to theirs and sparkled.

"Is that…? Gajeel! Buy me the strawberry cake there! And I want ten of it!" Erza ordered, her mind solely on cake now rather than the couple in front of her.

"A-Aye, Erza-sama!" Gajeel stood up immediately and went to the counter.

"O-oi, what happened?" Sting asked.

The strong mage was at a loss. He was inexperienced when it came to crying people, not to mention that this was the girl he cared about a lot. The people around him, such as Rogue and Orga, were usually strong and never displayed their emotions easily. The only person he comforts would be Lector and Frosch, but the two Exceeds had grown stronger and rarely cried now. In addition, Sting was raised in Sabertooth to never show weakness, which includes never giving in to emotions. Therefore, the white dragon slayer practically spent more than half of his life ignoring what the townspeople were feeling.

He looked at the girl sitting opposite of him, gripping on to her blue skirt tightly as tears fell on her knuckles. When she did not reply, he decided to change his tactic.

"Heh, you finally admitted you're stupid, eh?" Sting forced a smirk.

"Idiot," Sting heard Rogue whispered from two tables away and he frowned.

What was he supposed to do now? Lucy was not responding to whatever he said! Just as he was wrecking his brains and looking around for ideas _and_ help, a soft _cling_ was heard. The celestial mage had placed two bracelets on the table. Sting looked at the two bracelets, then at Lucy, and back to the two identical bracelets again.

"Why do you have two of the bracelets I gave you? Where did you get the other?"

Lucy shook her head quickly, not knowing how to reply.

She took a deep breath and related the bracelet incident to the blonde dragon slayer.

"That was why you were avoiding me?" Sting looked at Lucy straight in her eyes.

Lucy shuffled uncomfortably and nodded. Feeling ashamed, she looked at her thighs. Suddenly, she felt a thud on the back of her head. Her hands immediately shot to the light pain and she rubbed it, shooting a glare at the culprit.

"You avoided me for something as small as that? I was so worried I did something wrong! You could have just asked me!" Sting shouted while running his hair through his golden locks.

"I-I know! I know how silly I was to do so! B-but this is my first time in a relationship, my first time experiencing something like that, I didn't know what to do!" Lucy argued, her tears falling down uncontrollably.

Both of them sat in silence.

Then, at the same time, they blurted, "Sorry."

They looked at each other and grinned; Lucy began by taking Sting's large hands into hers and said, "I realized how stupid I was being. I should have consulted you and trusted you."

"To tell you the truth, the bracelet was…" Before Sting could continue, he was silenced by Lucy who had put her hand over his mouth.

"It's okay, I don't have to know the truth. I have all that I need to know. And it's that you are the sweetest boyfriend a girl could have."

Sting gently removed her hand and continued, "Let's me say finish, I don't want to lie to you. The bracelet I found was actually mine. I requested a matching one to be made, and I kept it my secret. It's a little embarrassing for a guy to do that. So when I knew that the bracelet was not at that house, I decided to give you mine. I figured it was a way to keep me closer to you. So, I guess the one that Natsu returned is the actual one."

Lucy giggled at her boyfriend's sweet intentions, "I want to keep yours. I'll let you have mine. It'll be our little secret." Lucy took a short glimpse at Rogue who was sipping his coffee slowly, "Even though I'm pretty sure Rogue knows of it by now."

Sting wrapped his fingers around his girlfriend's petite hands and gripped it tightly. He brought their hands to his lips and kissed it lightly.

"Never keep anything from me ever again. I love you too much to let you go," Sting looked at her and smiled sheepishly, embarrassed by his actions.

Surprising himself further, he leaned forward and gave Lucy a peck on her cheeks. The couple's faces turned red immediately and looked down, not daring to look up.

At another table, Gajeel and Levy were desperately trying to hide their faces behind the menu while Erza happily indulged in her cake. The other three members of Sabertooth looked at the couple, amused.

"Fro wonders what they are doing," Fro thought out loud.

"Shhh!" Levy shushed as she tried to peep over the menu, her face evidently red.

Similarly, Gajeel, who was holding onto the other side of the menu stuttered, "I-I didn't know Sting could act like that in public! S-so… l-l-lovey d-d-dovey!"

The Solid Script mage and the iron dragon slayer took a glance at each other and quickly looked elsewhere.

Lector smirked, "Looks like love is in the air."

Well, at least in Espiree. Right now, there was anything but love with Natsu and Gray, wherever they are. Yup, they were lost.

"I told you to trust my nose! If you did, we would at least know where we are right now!" Natsu grumbled.

"You were the one who told me to lead the way! You told me your nose wasn't working as well because of the fog!" Gray argued. "Besides, if you hadn't burned the inn down, they would not chase us into the forest, we would not be lost, and we would have a proper shelter over our heads! Damn Flame Brain!"

"What did you say, Ice Popsicle?! Those people were over-reacting! All I burned down was the room and the kitchen!"

Both of them were head-to-head, one had a fireball ready in his palm and the other's palms had a blue glow around it. All of the sudden, Natsu took a step back and started sniffing around.

"What's wrong?" Gray asked, getting ready in his fighting stance.

"The fog's clearing up a little."

Gray looked around and saw that Natsu was correct (as much as he hate to admit it). Slowly, the fog lifted and to their surprise, they were standing in front of an entrance to a cave. Natsu squinted and lit up a thick branch, and walked in. The darkness enveloping the cave brightened slightly.

"It looks okay, it smells okay. Nothing weird about this place," Natsu informed.

"Well then, looks like our accommodation is settled for tonight. It's getting late. We have to meet the job requester early in the morning tomorrow," Gray smirked.

"Huh? Why should I listen to you?"

Gray sighed, "If you don't want to listen to me, feel free to wander about for a few more hours. Come back if you see any better shelter."

Gray sat on the ground and took out his sleeping bag from his bag pack and proceeded to lie on the ground. The clunking noise of tree branches caused him to look up. Natsu threw more branches onto the ground and prepared to blow at it.

"What are you doing?" Gray asked.

"Can't you see?" Natsu raised his brows. "Making a fireplace."

"I'm going to get a heat stroke the next day!"

"Yeah, then I'm gonna get a cold!"

Both of them argued for a while before they gave in.

"Fine! Do what you want!" Both shouted in unison.

Then they smirked at each other. Natsu removed some of the branches and made a smaller fire than he initially intended to make.

Suddenly, Gray spoke up, "I guess this was what Erza intended."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Natsu turned his attention to the ice mage.

"What an idiot," Gray muttered and saw Natsu glaring at him. "I meant this. Us, somewhat getting along."

"We are?"

Gray sighed as he laid back down, not wanting to deal with the dense _and_ idiot fire dragon slayer across him.

Deciding that this atmosphere was the best time to proceed with his main intentions, Gray asked, "What do you think of Lucy?"

With his back facing Natsu, he only heard the loud breathing by him and silence.

"Why is it that everyone seems to be asking me this question recently? And what's you concern in all this?"

Gray hesitated before answering, "Both of you are my nakama and I just want to show my concern for both of you."

"She rejected me, y'know?"

"So I've heard. She feels really guilty about rejecting you. After all, you're her bestest friend in the guild and one she considers as her life-saver. You're the one who brought her to the guild. "

"Did she ask you to say all these?"

"Not really, I'm just telling you what I can see and what I know."

Silence hung in the air as Gray waited for Natsu's response.

Finally, Natsu asked, "Is it you?"

"M-me, what?" Gray stuttered.

"The guy that she likes. She probably has someone that she likes, that's why she dumped me. I mean, a girl like her who hasn't dated anyone in her life would date just about anyone who asks her, and I'm her closest guy friend. Of all people, she would have accepted me. And Mira said that she looks like she's in love recently. It's you, right?"

"Wait, w-what?"

Before Gray has a chance to stop him, Natsu continued relentlessly, "If it's you, I guess I can accept that. I mean, after me, the guy who cares most about her is you. I've seen how much trust she places onto you and how much you look after her. Normally, I would not give up without a fight, but if it's what she wishes, I guess I don't have a choice. Of course, if you hurt her, I will snatch her away from you and burn you into crisp. Oh, and not to forget Juvia. As much as you try to ignore Juvia, everyone knows how crazy she is over you. You have to talk to her before you date Lucy. I swear that girl will drown Lucy if she knows that you two are dat-"

"WAIT!" Gray shouted, panting in exasperation as he jumped up to face Natsu. "First of all, I'm not dating Lucy! She's a little sister to me! Second of all, why are you making her sound like some easy-going woman who dates anybody? I'm pretty sure that Lucy will only date a guy she has feelings for! And lastly, she did not dump you! She rejected you!"

Natsu stared at Gray wide-eyed and apologized, "I'm sorry. This rejection has turned me into a jerk."

"But is it true? That as long as Lucy is happy, you will accept any guy?"

"I will _try_. Why? You interested?" Natsu smirked.

"No, thank you. She already has St-" Gray stopped himself immediately from blurting it out. Natsu was not ready for this.

"Already has what?"

"Steller spirit! Her stellar spirits! She already has so many stellar spirits to give her attention to! I don't think she has time for any guy at the moment!"

"You mean Loki? Bah! That playboy isn't even worth her time!"

_Nice save, _Gray thought.

Back at Espiree…

"With the addition of those filthy punks, things will certainly be interesting!" the dark-haired mage laughed wickedly as she spotted the said people at the entrance of the theme park.


	14. Right and Wrongs

**Hi, I'm back! I can't believe that it has been almost a year since publishing this story and it has been a joy writing for readers like you guys. Thank you for being so patient with me, ****I understand how annoying it is to have to wait so long for a chapter so ****I really appreciate it! The story is getting exciting! _ More of Erza and Sting in this chapter! **

**Enjoy!~ **

**Disclaimer: Characters belong to Hiro Mashima.**

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 13: Right and Wrongs (AN: Right... I just realised that I have two chapter 9...) **_

The rest of the day was spent with much joy yet it was tiring, especially for Erza. Not only was she trying to divert her attention from the simulation arena and the giant jumping castle, but she was trying to split the two couples up. Not literally, but she could not trust the Sabertooth dragons just yet (or even Gajeel's attraction towards the smaller solid script mage). Not to mention, seeing the two couples was taking a toll on her emotions. At times, in the midst of all the fun, she could not help but miss a certain powerful blue-haired Mage.

As she sat on her bed alone in the master bedroom, about to think about him again. Thankfully a knock on the door prevented that.

"Hey Erza, wanna have a sleepover with Levy-chan and I? Just us girls," Lucy invited with a yawn.

Erza contemplated for a moment and nodded her head, "Give me a moment."

It would be a good time to find out what the two liked about the person they were attracted to. Simultaneously, she could have a confirmation about her feelings. Slowly, she got up and a wave of uneasiness hit her. She looked around frantically, but saw nothing in her room and a stretch of darkness outside the window. She frowned, not knowing if she should just dismiss it. She knew that her instinct was always on the spot and she was never wrong.

"Erza," Lucy called out, "are you coming? Don't keep us waiting!"

Erza drew the curtains shut and shook her head. It was probably her tired from a day of fun and from thinking too much. The sword master requipped into her pajamas and walked to the girls' room.

"So what did you talk about with Sting earlier?" Levy giggled.

"Nothing much," Lucy replied a little too quickly.

"There is something!" Levy squealed.

Erza stood at the door and gaped. This was what a girl talk was like! Having a girls' talk has been on her checklist since young. Gray and Natsu were not the best people to have a girls' talk with and every time she and Mirajane were in the same room, at least when they were younger, they only got into fights.

"Erza! Finally! I was just going to interrogate Lucy-chan about Sting-kun!" Levy exclaimed.

"Interrogate?" Erza raised her brows. Is that what girls do at such sleepovers?

"Oh shut it, Levy-chan, or should I say, Future Mrs Redfox?" Lucy rolled her eyes.

Levy flushed was about to say something when Erza interrupted, "If anyone's going to do interrogating, it would be me!"

The two ladies gaped at the red-head's enthusiasm and seriousness in the conversation that was about to take place.

"I-if you say so," Levy stuttered, "b-but could you do me a favour and not speak about," her eyes shifted to the room door.

Erza raised her eyebrows and looked to the door, "He wasn't outside when I came in."

"He wasn't? Oh, I guess he went to train. In any case, better to be safe than sorry."

Erza took a deep breath and started asking her questions, "How did you know when you were in love with…them?"

Lucy smiled, recalling the times before she had become Sting's girlfriend, "I guess the feelings just come to you unexpectedly. How do I say it? Like a sudden attack from your enemies! That's right, it's unexpected and you will be on your guard around him all the time! You will not stop thinking of him." Seeing how Erza's facial expression changed, Lucy assumed that she was really imaging a battle with one of the many enemies they have encountered. She hurriedly said, "However, it's different of course! While in a battle with your enemies, all you want to do is to defeat your enemy, but in this battle, it's a battle with your own feelings. In this particular battle, you are already defeated. You cannot stop thinking about him, you want to be around him, and you just want to share every moment in your life with him. For me, the fear which comes from having to battle an enemy and the fear that I am in love is similar."

Erza furrowed her eyebrows till they were almost joined together. Lucy smiled at her friend, knowing her reasons for her serious expression. It could be due to a certain fugitive with blue hair.

"So have you felt like that before?" Lucy asked, wanting to tease the confused mage.

"W-what?! No! Of course not! T-that's a ridiculous thinking you have there!" Erza exclaimed a little too quickly.

"I'm just kidding, Erza," Lucy soothed. "So what about you, Levy-chan?"

"Mostly similar. I guess you just feel…right every time you are with him. The world seems to be a beautiful place and all the wrongs are made right," Levy said dreamily.

"That's a very artistic description from you, Mrs Redfox."

"Shhh!" Levy hushed. "He might be outside!"

Lucy yawned, the events of the day finally taking a toll on her. She leaned back onto the pillow and giggled, "Oh, relax! He's so hardcore, he'll be training till dawn. I would know, our boyfriends have that similarity. Well, besides the whole dragon slayer thing."

"Lucy, why did you continue loving Sting even though you know that there was a high possibility that the guild, your friends will not accept him? There might be many difficulties in this relationship too, seeing how Sabertooth and Fairy Tail are rivals." Erza asked, unaware that the two females were having a conversation of another topic.

Lucy yawned again, her eyes barely opened, "Love is irrational. There are no reasons for love. Like Levy-chan said just now, love makes all the wrongs right. It is never wrong, yet it is never right. Sorry, Erza, this is the best answer I can give you right now. This is my first relationship and I'm still learning the steps as it goes."

Erza nodded silently. What her friends had just said made so much sense, yet she was still confused. She put her hands to her chest to stop her heart from thumping out of it. Lucy's experiences matched with her own. Every little thing she saw, she would think of her childhood sweetheart. It was as if her brain had a mind of its own. It was confusing but it was also scary to think that she was in love with him. She could not – he had a fiancée, even though part of her knew that it was a lie. He had always been a bad liar since young. Erza sighed. For the first time in her life, Erza Scarlet felt defeated.

She turned to look at the celestial mage behind her, who was already fast asleep and smiled. Lucy was stronger than she gave herself credit for. She had gone ahead with her relationship with Sting even though she knew that she would face the wrath of Natsu, Gray and her, and possibly Fairy Tail, the strongest guild in the Kingdom of Fiore. Not many would have the courage to do that. Even her, Erza Scarlet, also known as Titania of Fairy Tail, did not have the courage to come clean with her feelings. Just thinking about how to proceed with the relationship with a fugitive just makes her afraid about their future, in the event that she actually confesses to him.

Leaning towards the blonde, she patted her head lightly and whispered, "Good job, good job."

The moment the earliest of the sunrays hit the windows, Erza was already up and out. While she did have a more peaceful night with the other girls, she could not help but think about her feelings. In addition, ever since stepping into the amusement park, she has been having a dreading feeling, like something bad was going to happen during this trip. To calm herself down, she went to the forest surrounding the humongous amusement park.

Requipping to her samurai outfit, she started slashing the tree repeatedly, telling herself to be faster with each slash. _Faster, faster, faster! _She screamed at herself internally.

Suddenly, she heard a loud swish among the leaves near her. Erza frowned, wanting to dismiss it to the wind. However, the air was as still as death. Writing it off as paranoia, she continued to attack the other trees around her, with increasing speed. Suddenly, she heard a loud blast nearby and immediately charged towards it. When she arrived, her eyes widened at the sight. Sting and Rouge standing at one end in attack mode, and their two Exceeds standing behind them. She shifted her eyes to their opponent, who was blocked by the smoke from the blast. When the smoke cleared, she widened her eyes further. The blue hair, the one and only tattoo below the eye, and his dark cape-like coat – the features that Erza had not been able to get out of her mind just the night before.

"What are you doing here, Jellal Fernandes?" Erza asked, a little colder than how she wanted to sound.

"Erza," Jellal coughed and frowned.

However, before Jellal could say anything else, Rogue appeared from the shadow of the trees and punched him before shouting, "_Eiryū no Hōkō_!"

A dark breath of air appeared from Rogue's mouth and the close-range attack sent both the attacker and the victim flying into different directions. Jellal and Rogue slide on the floor, trying to put the brakes on themselves from hitting the trees.

Sting punched his fists together and smirked, "Give up."

Sting threw his hands back as he prepared his attack. At the same time, Jellal quickly got back up on his feet and bent down, placing both hands on the ground.

A bright yellow magic circle appeared as he whispered, "Ryusei [_Meteor_]."

The moment the magic circle disappeared, the same yellow light surrounded Jellal. In a split second, the blue-haired fugitive was next to Sting and punching Sting continuously. Sting took blow after blow with every second. Despite his agility, he was no match for Jellal's speed-enhancing spell. From the corner of his eyes, Sting saw Rogue rushing towards them. Rogue clenched his fist, ready to engage in a hand to hand combat with the enemy. However, his eyes shifted to and fro in confusion and the direction of his fist kept changing. How was he going to hit the enemy if they were moving at lightning speed?

Suddenly, the red-headed mage who had been watching the fight at the side dashed in between the two fighting men, while requipping into her flight armor.

"Stop fighting," Erza commanded.

"Are you helping me or are you helping him?" Jellal panted.

"Neither. Why are you fighting?"

"He's a wanted man. I have got a request from the magic council to capture him," Sting said, still breathing heavily. "Why are you shielding him? Don't you hate him?"

"Like I said, I'm not shielding anybody!" Erza snapped in irritation. "Eh, wait, what makes you think I hate him?"

"You don't?" Sting dropped his fighting stance in shock. "I've got my sources."

"Sources? Who?" Erza glared.

"Uh…Lector?"

"You got your information from a cat?!"

Sting shrunk as he braced himself from the wrath of Erza Scarlet, "H-he's an Exceed! And he got the information from a reliable source!"

Sting hurriedly turns to look at his little black partner who was smiling sheepishly, "I-I got it from…"

"I can't hear you!" Erza scolded, her glare becoming more deathly as she saw Sting's eyes widened and the color fading from his face.

"The Daily Sorcerer," Lector mumbled.

Erza became rigid as Jellal smirked at her reaction, as well as the reaction from the mages from Sabertooth. He knew that Erza was not angry but embarrassed. Embarrassed that The Daily Sorcerer had written an article about him and Erza.

"Sorry, Erza-sama," Sting and Lector squeaked.

"N-No, it must be me. I must have misled them into thinking that I hate Jellal," Erza started mumbling non-stop, as if she was in her own zone.

"I'm sorry again, Erza-san, but I have to complete this mission," Sting informed, with more seriousness in his words this time. He took one of his feet back and shouted, "_Hakuryū no Hōkō_!"

A whirlwind exited from Sting's mouth and rushed towards Jellal. Before he could react to the attack, Erza interjected the whirlwind with her sword and stood in front of the fugitive, "If you want him, you will have to get through me."

Sting gritted his teeth tightly, feeling conflicted. On one hand, he was a Sabertooth dragon slayer and he was expected to complete this mission or face Jiemma. On the other hand, Erza is his girlfriend's best friend, and an older sister figure, and he could not hurt her (even though there is no doubt that the one hurt would be him).

"Damn it!" Sting spat. "Why, Erza-san?! Why?!"

"Because I love him, and love makes wrongs right. At least, that was what Lucy told me last night. She's willing to overcome all odds by being with you and now, I understand her feelings. Like her, I'm willing give up everything to be with him."

Sting's eyes became as round as saucers, and dropped to his knees in resignation. He whispered, "I can't fight her, Rogue, I can't. It's up to you now."

Rogue silently strolled over to his buddy and leaned on the tree behind. "We were already prepared for Jiemma in the first place. It's not our mission to complete anymore."

Sting looked up and smiled. He stood up and took a few steps towards the couple in front of him and pointed at Jellal, "Look after her, Jellal Fernandes! If she gets hurt, Lucy will feel upset, and I will do everything to get rid of Lucy's pain!"

Erza blushed, just realizing that she had confessed her feelings for Jellal in front of others. From behind, Jellal slipped his hands into hers and squeezed it tightly.

With her face still red, Erza nodded, "Sting Eucliffe, Lucy has made a correct judgment in choosing you. I'm proud of her and I'm proud of you."

However, before they could do anything else, a lightning ray hit each and every one of them. From the shadows of the forest, Rufus and Minerva appeared. Not wanting them to get back up, Minerva immediately formed a hand sign, causing them to be trapped in a floating bubble.

"I never knew Sabertooth guild members were so weak. Giving up a mission so easily."

"Mi-ner-va," Sting and Rogue growled.

"So the man was right. You are dating one of the Fairy Tail weaklings," Minerva clicked her tongue in disappointment. "What a waste of a fine man like you. Let me tell you, you are being manipulated! The Sting Eucliffe I know would never allow a captive to escape no matter the circumstances! No matter, father will deal with you when we get back and I will be the one to complete this mission!"

Minerva started laughing sinisterly.

"N-no! I won't allow you to do that! Don't you dare lay a finger on him!" Sting snarled.

"Why wouldn't I dare, Sting? I nearly forgot about something! Or should I say _someone_? Before I do anything, I will treat all of you to an exciting show!"

With a snap of her fingers, a bruised blonde mage appeared in front of their eyes. Her hair was in a mess and, while not very serious, her body was covered in scratches.

"Lucy," Sting gasped and struggled in his bubble despite knowing that it was difficult to escape.

"S-sting," Lucy wheezed.

Sting turned his attention from his girlfriend to Minerva who had released Lucy from her bubble. With a smug smile on her face, Minerva slowly looked at Lucy and waved her hands, sending Lucy towards one of the trees. Lucy groaned as she slammed into the rough bark. However, she could not process the pain fully as what was next came quickly. She was sent from tree to tree and with every tree she hit, there was an explosion. Lucy let out a blood curdling scream with every hit.

The veins in Sting's neck bulged out in ridges as he witnessed upon the sadistic nature of Minerva. He clenched his fist, trying to garner his power. However, he felt powerless. He looked around and saw that he was not the only one doing that. Erza was slashing repeatedly at the bubble, trying to break free. The Exceeds too were trying paw their way out, wanting to save the celestial mage.

Finally, there was one person who succeeded. Seven magic seals appeared in the sky and gleamed brightly before shooting down, causing a loud explosion. In that second, everyone's bubbles burst and Sting landed on the ground. Through the smoke, he sniffed for the familiar scent of his girlfriend. Tears threatened to fall his face when he saw her lying lifelessly next to a tree. Sting picked her up and leaned his ears to her mouth, trying to hear something. Anything that could indicate that she was still alive. To his relief, Lucy's chest began to move up and down.

"You got that much strength to break out of my spell?" Sting heard Minerva asking Jellal. A tone of amusement and wonderment.

"Get lost from our sight! Or we will destroy you!" Jellal barked.

"Come on Rufus, I've got enough fun for one day. Nevertheless, Jellal Fernandes, I'll be back for you," Minerva said and disappeared, knowing that she was at a losing end if she were to fight him and Titania.

"How is she?" Erza approached them. She gulped when she saw Lucy and her battered up look, "Damn it! Why isn't Wendy with us right now?! Hurry! We need to get her to Fairy Tail!"

"We are hours away from Magnolia! How do you expect us to do that?!" Sting shouted in anger.

"We need to stop fighting among ourselves!" Jellal ordered.

Their conversation was interrupted by a certain solid script mage and iron dragon slayer. Levy asked, "Gajeel heard a fight going on here, and Lucy is miss-". She stopped her sentence abruptly when she saw her friend lying unconsciously in Sting's arms. Levy gasped and looked at all of them, "What happened? Is Lucy okay?"

"I don't know. She needs to be healed quickly. We need Wendy," Erza scowled.

"I got a transport nearby. We have to hurry," Jellal offered.

They ran towards a small chariot and Jellal hastily casted the _Meteor_ spell on it. Sting could only see a bright light surrounding them and before he knew it, they were in Magnolia. Sting glanced at the injured Lucy in his hands and bit his lips. He wanted to scream and shake Lucy up from her unconsciousness, but he knew better than that. He felt a hand on his shoulders and turned. Rogue and the two Exceeds were giving him a firm yet comforting nod but the White Dragon slayer could only return a weak smile.

"Pass her to me," Erza instructed.

Sting flinched and growled softly, not wanting to let go of his precious girl. He gulped, knowing that this is no time for that. Lucy needed help and she needed it fast. Finally relenting, he gently placed Lucy into the safe hands of Erza. He looked on helplessly as Erza burst through the main doors of Fairy Tail, yelling for Wendy. He heard the flustering of the guild as they showered their concerns for their resident celestial mage.

Sting heard Rogue chuckling bitterly behind him, "The difference between Fairy Tail and Sabertooth. A fallen person would only have gotten sneers in Sabertooth."

"Wendy!" Erza burst through the doors, garnering everyone's attention.

Natsu stood away from his fight with Gray and he stiffened at the sight of his favourite blonde. He ran up to Erza and forcefully snatched Lucy away and rushed towards the infirmary. How did this happen? He wanted to scream, but the words were lost when he opened his mouth. He remembered being disappointed by his partner's absence when he had returned from the mission with Gray. The both of them had completed the mission much sooner than expected and he wanted to brag about it. He also wanted to share with Lucy about how he had bonded with Gray during this mission; secretly of course, Gray was after all still his rival. Looking at the brutally battered up female in his hands, he wanted to punch something or someone.

"Wendy, please," Natsu pleaded at the young dragon slayer standing beside him.

Wendy nodded firmly and shut her eyes, placing her hands over Lucy. A faint glow shrouded them as Natsu gripped onto Lucy's hands tightly.

"BASTARD! I entrusted Lucy to you! What the hell happened?!" Gray punched the remorseful white dragon slayer the instant he saw the latter.

Sting took the punch, but said nothing. He did not know what could be said and what to say. In any case, it was him who put Lucy in such danger.

"It was not his fault, Gray," Erza intercepted. "We did not expect any of this."

Finally, his thoughts overwhelmed him and Sting squatted down, tears rolled down his face with no signs of stopping, "It's my fault! I should have smelt her and Rufus, or at least heard them, but I was too caught up in that moment of happiness. I shouldn't have let my guard down! Damn it!"

"You again," Natsu growled as he stood by the entrance. "Nothing ever good happens around you. For causing such harm to Lucy, I'm going to kill you."

* * *

><p><strong>Hope there are no mistakes! _ I was a little too tired to edit it thoroughly and was too anxious to publish this for you guys! Does my writing style feel different? :X I hope not! <strong>

**Please comment! Thanks!**


	15. I love you too

**__Sorry for the super duper late update! I had a major writer's block, didn't quite know how to proceed. I hope that you will be happy with how the story proceeds! _ I've made it extra long as compensation! **

**Sooo... I'm in Singapore, and it's super hazy (PSI 400 today!) and this gave me a chance to sit at home, writing this up! **

**Enjoy!~**

****Disclaimer: Characters belong to Hiro Mashima.****

* * *

><p><strong><em>Chapter 14: I love you too. <em>**

_Finally, his thoughts overwhelmed him and Sting squatted down, tears rolled down his face with no signs of stopping, "It's my fault! I should have smelt her and Rufus, or at least heard them, but I was too caught up in that moment of happiness. I shouldn't have let my guard down! Damn it!"_

"_You again," Natsu growled as he stood by the entrance. "Nothing ever good happens around you. For causing such harm to Lucy, I'm going to kill you."_

Natsu growled again and the temperature in the air around them increased. A small breath of fire exited his mouth and he glowered at the Twin Dragons of Sabertooth. However, before he could do anything to hurt them, an unexpected thing happened. The iron dragon slayer stepped in between them and crossed his arms.

Natsu flinched back in surprise and snarled, "Gajeel? What are you doing? You are the one of the last person I would expect to shield them!"

Gajeel said nothing and merely shook his head.

Angered by his actions, Natsu roared and pulled Gajeel towards him, "What the hell are you doing?! They killed their parent dragons!"

"Yes, I know, but they do have their reasons," Gajeel said calmly, face-to-face with the shorter dragon slayer.

"Reasons? I don't care what reasons they have, it does not change the fact the Lucy is in there, unconscious!"

"Gajeel-san," Sting interrupted, "Natsu-san is right. I'm the one who landed her in this state. It is all my fault."

Natsu released Gajeel from his gripped and spat, "Damn right it is! Gajeel, get lost, I need to deal with these Sabertooth murderers."

However, Gajeel stayed where he was, not moving an inch. Levy, worrying about the iron dragon slayer, went up to him and gripped his arms tightly. Gajeel moved her hands from his arms to his hands and held it strongly. Levy nodded, words need not express what her boyfriend felt and wanted to do. She stared at Natsu firmly, knowing that no matter how much he hated his enemies, he would never hurt his nakama. As if their feelings were being conveyed telepathically, Erza went to their side and gave Natsu a firm look, daring him to get past her.

"You know why you want to hurt him better than I do, Natsu," Erza informed sternly.

Natsu clenched his fists so tightly that it was turning white. He knew. He knew the moment he saw her crying on the sidewalk. The Sting Eucliffe he fought during the Grand Magic Tournament would never have been caught crying in public. Everything made sense and it was just him who refused to accept the truth. Lucy had chosen Sting Eucliffe of Sabertooth over him. It explained the bracelet and the charms on it. It explained the scent of her apartment that day. It explained why she was suddenly so secretive around him. It explained why she protected Sting from him. It explained the conversation he had with Gray during their mission.

"You knew," he whispered with realization. "Bastard! You knew! You knew and you didn't tell me!" He shouted towards Gray.

Gray hurriedly formed an ice shield to block the incoming fire punch from the raging Natsu and explained himself, "I couldn't! I had to know if Erza approved of their relationship before I could say anything! Damn it, flame brain! Stop throwing your temper around! Lucy knew you would act like that, that's why she made me promise not to mention a word to you!"

Natsu froze in the middle of his punch and dropped his hands down to his sides. He kept silent, not knowing the right words to say. He felt a wave of disappointment. Was he upset at himself or Lucy? He was Lucy's best friend and partner, he should be the one to know everything about her before anyone else. Even Levy. Natsu knew that Lucy probably wanted to let him know the first but she also knew how he reacted with the Sabertooth dragon slayers.

Natsu's thoughts were soon broken by Wendy's announcement, "Natsu-san! Lucy-san is awake!"

However, the first one to rush to Lucy's side was not the fire dragon slayer, much to his chagrin. It was the blonde Sabertooth dragon slayer. Sting flew to Lucy's bedside and clutched her hands. He accessed her condition and cringed when he saw all the bruises on her. Sting put his head onto Lucy's bandaged head and tears slowly dampened the white bandages.

With a weak smile on her face, Lucy lifted her hands to his face with as much strength as she could muster and wiped the tears away.

She closed her eyes and soothed softly, "I'm okay."

Sting shook his head stubbornly, only to hear a short giggle from the other blonde.

Lucy winced in pain, forgetting that she was injured badly, "D-don't be silly, Sting. I'm really fine. Now that I've seen you, I feel a whole lot better."

Sting chuckled softly as he whispered, "I love you. I love you so much that I can't imagine what I'm going to do without you. Promise me that you will stay alive no matter what?"

"Silly Sting, I'll promise you that. I love you too."

With the last few words, Lucy dozed off back to sleep. Sting planted a kiss on her forehead. He slowly stood up and reluctantly released his hands from his girlfriend's. The tall blonde boyfriend of the Fairy Tail mage knew that whenever the celestial mage promised something, she would keep that promise. Hence, despite the hesitancy in leaving his girlfriend, Sting knew that there was nothing much to worry about especially since she was out of danger and in the safe hands of Fairy Tail guild. He hesitantly looked over to the door of the infirmary and saw Natsu standing rigidly there. Judging from his face, Natsu had probably heard their entire conversation with his extremely sensitive hearing. Sting knew exactly what he had to do. He walked out silently, not wanting to wake up the patient. He braced himself as he followed Natsu to the bar without a word.

"Get out," Natsu demanded openly.

"Nat-" Erza started, but was ignored by the fire dragon slayer.

"I don't care how much Lucy's feelings are for you and what you are to her. You still belong to the guild which injured her this badly. Go back and tell your guild this: We weren't angered by the fact that you took away our first place in the tournament, but now you have they hurt our nakama, you have incurred our wrath. We will not stand by and see our nakama getting injured like that. Now get out and as long as the Sabertooth mark is present on your body, you may never return."

At the end of sentence, a loud thunderous cheer was heard from the guild members who were proud of Natsu's declaration. At least most of the guild members were. A few of them, mainly Erza, Gray, Levy and Gajeel, could not get themselves to cheer and feel pride in Natsu's words. They knew that the injured celestial mage would be devastated when she wakes up. They could only hope that the two dragon slayers would quickly quit their guild so that Sting could return to Lucy's side.

With that, Natsu took his seat at the bar and ordered a mug of beer to drown his sorrows. While Natsu was distracted, Gray dragged Sting out of the guild. The despondent white dragon slayer could only drag his feet out. After all, the love of his life was lying here. He knew that she was in a safe spot and nobody could hurt her here, but still he would not know when would be the next time he would be able to see her. Gray sighed in annoyance and glared at the Fairy Tail members who took advantage of Sting's lack of interest in his surroundings and were jeering at him.

After a few pushes from the strong, muscular ice mage, Sting was finally out of the guild.

"Look, I'm sorry for the punch I landed on you just now," Gray apologized, running his hands through his dark hair.

When Sting remained silent, Lector commented, "I think the punch has knocked him speechless."

"Fro thinks so too!" Frosch piped, trying to lighten the mood to no avail.

"You guys should find somewhere to stay in Magnolia first," Gray continued, ignoring the Exceeds.

"No," Rogue spoke up, "only Sting will be staying here. I will go back to Sabertooth."

Gray opened his mouth, shocked by the laconic shadow dragon slayer's sudden words. He was about to retort back when Erza came out of the guild.

"I've talked to the master. He has specially arranged for you guys to stay in the guild so that Sting can be near Lucy when she wakes up," she announced.

"B-but Natsu-san?" Lector asked in place of the temporarily-muted Sting.

"Ignore him," Erza said matter-of-factly, "he needs to sort out his thoughts and realise that Lucy will never like him the way he does."

Gray winced, feeling for his rival.

"We need to go back to Sabertooth," Sting spoke up at last.

Erza blinked in surprise and shock, "I just told you that you can be near Lucy! If you are worried about what Natsu and the other guild members will think, you don't have to worry with me around."

Sting smiled weakly at Erza's support, but he knew what he had to do, "Thanks Erza-san, but we have to face Jiemma sooner or later."

"You know we might not be able to return to Magnolia if we return to Sabertooth, right?" Rogue said stolidly.

"I can't let you go back alone and face the consequences."

"Why can't you two stay?" Levy, who didn't know what was going on, interrupted the conversation upon coming out of the guild. She had been in the guild trying to answer questions pertaining to Sting and Lucy and had finally escaped.

"Even if I stayed, Natsu-san has made it clear that he doesn't want me near Lucy. It's no use even if I stay."

The moment Sting finished his sentence, he saw hundreds of swords pointing at him. Erza had requipped into her Heaven's Wheel Armour and had summoned her swords.

"Do you remember what I said I would do if you hurt Lucy? Back at the woods, if Minerva hadn't appeared on the scene, I would have told Lucy that she had found a great guy that she can rely on and love. I would have told her that I fully approve and support her relationship with you. I would have told her about my approval not because of how you decided to give up on your mission in order to release Jellal, but because when you did that, I knew that you understood how it is like to love someone you shouldn't be loving. I knew that your feelings for Lucy was deep and was true. However, the Sting I see here now is not the Sting that I had approved of back in Espiree!" Erza bellowed.

Sting knotted his brows and for the second time in his life, he felt vulnerable. He felt like a piece of glass about to shatter into a million pieces any second.

"Allow me to ask you this. Do you love Lucy? Can you bear to see her hurt?"

"Yes, I love her very much. Seeing her being beaten up by Minerva was like beating me up, but a thousand, no, a million times worse."

"Good, then show me that you love her and not hurt her. Do you know how hurt she will be when she wakes up and realise that you are gone? That hurt will be a million times worse than the pain Minerva inflicted on her! Because when Minerva tortured her, she could feel our pain and our anger. But if you leave, she will not be able to feel your love, care and concern. So, what do you choose?"

Sting surrendered, "I will stay. Rogue?"

"You'll never let me return alone, right?" Rogue muttered, the sides of his lips twitching, forming a soft smirk.

"By the way, Erza-san, you should ask Jellal-san to stay hidden. After this incident, Minerva will be more desperate to have him captured," Sting warned.

"Don't worry about him, we have his identity covered."

"We do? Wait, where's Jellal anyway? What's he doing here?" Gray scratched his head in confusion, his clothes bafflingly missing in action again.

"From today onwards, Mystogan has returned to the guild. Other information will be left for later," Erza informed.

A blush crept up her neck as she remembered about her confession. So many things took place afterwards that she was unable to hear his answer, but so far so good, there has not been any negative response. The warrior slapped herself mentally, realizing that her relationship should be the last thing on her mind right now, or at least not her priority.

"Now, Sting and Rogue, let's get you settled in the guild," Erza said, trying to get her mind off a certain male. "Where are your things?"

"Back at Espiree," Lector reminded. "We left too quickly."

"I'll get someone to bring it back soon. For now, follow me."

"Erza-san, we are grateful for what you and your master have done for us, but as much as I would like to stay near Lucy, I would like to respect Natsu-san's wishes as well. Don't worry about us, we'll find an inn in Magnolia. Please inform me the moment Lucy wakes up," Sting said.

Erza gave the two dragon slayers a long hard stare before nodding her head, "Very well." Then she whispered, knowing fully well that they would be able to hear her, "I wish Natsu would be more open-minded to see who you really are."

* * *

><p>A few days passed and the two Sabertooth dragon slayers could only stay helplessly in their inn, waiting for news. The only Fairy Tail mages who were accepting towards them visited from time to time, updating them on everything.<p>

On the first day, Levy and Gajeel visited them, informing Sting that the wounds on Lucy were mostly healed, thanks to Wendy. Before Sting could let out a sigh of relief, Levy also had a bad news for him: Lucy was having a high fever right now and Wendy, having used her energy on the wounds, could not heal her. At the moment, they were using medicine from Porlyusica, the woman famed for her medicinal skills and Sting should not worry because Lucy is in good hands what with Team Natsu attending to her around the clock. Levy also added that it was comical seeing Erza avoid Jellal. The bookworm has read enough to have a vague idea of what happened between them but she wanted confirmation.

"So you really, really don't know what happened between them?" Levy probed further when the white dragon shook his head a little too quickly the first time she asked.

Gajeel snickered as he watched Sting stumbling over his words, trying to get Levy off his back.

Finally Sting sighed in resignation. Levy has helped Lucy and him quite a lot anyway. He can worry about whether or not Erza will come after him for revealing later. So Sting disclosed the events of the previous day when Erza confessed to Jellal in front of them. By the time Sting was done, Levy was squealing and jumping in excitement and the poor blonde dragon slayer was not sure if he made the right choice of telling her.

The second day, Erza stormed into the inn. The first thing she did when she opened the door was to requipped into one of her armours and charged towards Sting. Rogue silently watched as his friend was being beaten up, noticing that the assaulter's face was really red, not from anger but embarrassment. After a good beating on her part, Erza announced that Lucy was recuperating at home and slammed the door.

The next day, while Rogue was out taking a walk, Sting decided that he needs to see his girl soon and went to her apartment. He was only a few feet away from her home when he stopped in his tracks. He could smell her from where he was. He took a deep breath, and then he frowned. The sweet scent was mixed with a smell of burnt wood. Unable to go up, he could only stare longingly at the window for a short while before the fire dragon slayer smells him and fights him. Lucy would hate that. When he returned, he found Gray and Erza in the inn.

"You might have to wait for a few more days before you can see Lucy," Gray informed. "Right now, it's kind of impossible. Natsu doesn't want to leave her side and he knows what we want to do."

Sting winced as he felt a twinge of jealousy shoot up his heart.

Noting his painful expressions, Gray added, "We'll try to help you find a chance to see her soon."

"Thank you Gray-san, Erza-san, I already expected this when I decided to stay in Magnolia."

"You are a strong man, Sting," Erza smiled.

Wanting to change the subject, Sting blurted out, "So Erza-san, how are things with you and Jellal? Last I heard, it's not going too well!"

This resulted in him flying across the room, into the wall, with Gray guffawing at his stupidity the moment Erza marched away.

After a while of men's talk with Gray, or better known as idiotic arguing over each other's stupidity, Rogue was back with an unexpected guest. His guest flew into the room and took a sit on the table, crossing his arms.

"Happy..." Gray uttered.

Sting opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but was stopped by Happy's paw.

"I am only here to clarify something. How much do you love Lucy?"

Sting furrowed his eyebrows as he thought of his answer, and finally responded with a hint of embarrassment, "My love for her is something that cannot be measured simply. All I know is that nobody has ever made me feel like that before."

"The question was a little redundant actually," Happy muttered to himself. "So much for acting cool."

"Happy?" Gray raised his brows.

"I'll help you. I've already made up my mind even before I asked the question. As long as you have Gray's and Erza's support, I will help you meet Lucy."

"Why? Isn't Natsu-san your best friend? You shouldn't do that!" Sting exclaimed.

"I'm not helping you, I'm helping Lucy," Happy explained, looking downcast. "Lucy is forcing a smile around us and Natsu is too stubborn to see it. I want to give Lucy back her smile and I want Natsu to see that he is not the one that she needs right now."

"Wow, Happy!" Gray marvelled.

"Plus with this, I can finally say you liiikkkkkeeee her!" Happy rolled his tongue. Happy shot a look towards Gray and deadpanned, "What? I'm tired from having to sound so intelligent."

Two days later, after rounds of careful plotting, the plan was set into motion.

"Mira-san! What are you doing here?" Lucy wondered, putting away her book.

"Well, it's been a long time since I've seen you or Natsu, so I've come to see you," Mira answered with her usual smile.

"I'm much better now, thanks to Wendy! But I need a little more recuperation before I can go out of the house," Lucy pouted. "How's everyone?"

Mirajane giggled, "They should be the one asking you that. Everyone misses you and Natsu though. Things are a little quiet without the usual brawls."

"Natsu!" Happy broke in, "We haven't been to the guild for a long time! Let's go back!"

Natsu looked at Lucy uneasily, and then he looked at his best friend's eager face and said, "Sorry buddy, not today. Maybe when Lucy is much better, we can go together!"

"It's alright, Natsu, you guys can go ahead. You've been looking after me day and night! You should get a well-deserved break!"

Mirajane nodded, "I can help look after her for you."

Natsu shook his head, "I think better not. I'm sure Lucy will feel alright to go down tomorrow!"

"But I'm hungry!" Happy whined.

"Then go down and buy yourself something to eat!"

Suddenly, Mirajane clapped her hands and stood up, "I just bought some ingredients! Let me whip something up for you! Natsu, I can even make your favourite flaming grilled chicken!"

The thought of his favourite food immediately caused him to drool and Natsu nodded enthusiastically. In less than an hour, Mirajane was done cooking for everybody, much to everyone's awe, and they gobbled everything down. As soon as Natsu was down eating, he collapsed to the floor. Lucy gasped, scurrying down to see if he was okay.

"Don't worry, he's just in deep sleep," Mirajane explained. "Let me make sure he won't wake up so soon!"

Mirajane took a pan and swung it down to his head with a loud bang causing Lucy and Happy to flinch, feeling the pain of their best friend.

"Okay!" Mirajane chirped. "He's definitely asleep! Now, Happy, call them!"

"W-what's going on?" Lucy stammered.

However, the only response she got was the twinkle in Mirajane's eyes. Suddenly, her door swung open, revealing a certain redhead behind it.

"Is he out?" she walked towards the unconscious fire dragon slayer in front of her and gave him strong kick in the gut.

"Yup, he's definitely out," Lucy muttered to herself, sweat dropping from her forehead. "W-wait, what is all this about?"

This time, her question was answered by another of her teammate who walked through the entrance half naked, "You'll see. You will owe us all a huge favour by the end of all this."

Gray walked towards Natsu and picked him up swiftly as Lucy continued to stare at her two teammates cluelessly.

"Remember, you have only up till dawn before we have to bring Natsu back in. We don't want his suspicions to be aroused," Erza informed.

While she was looking at her direction, Lucy noticed she was not looking at her, but behind her. The celestial mage swung around to look at who was standing at the entrance. Tears welled up in her eyes upon seeing her favourite blonde in the whole world. She brought her hands to her mouth and gasped, looking from him, to her teammates, and then back to him, and then to Mirajane.

Knowing what Lucy was curious about, Mirajane answered without further ado, "I know I was part of the Nalu shipping, but I also very much believe in true love!"

Lucy nodded silently, unsure of what to say when Erza interrupted that silence, "We should get going. Remember what I said, and no funny things! Or I will pull out all my swords I have to your neck!"

Sting nodded, eyes still stuck on Lucy. He scanned her up and down as the others walked out of the apartment. He looked for bruises and scars and found none. Sting made a mental note to thank the sky dragon slayer later. However, his eyes narrowed upon seeing the slightly dark rings around her eyes and hearing her catching her breath. He slowly shut the door behind him and walked towards the girl. _His _girl. When he was in front of her, he pushed her hands away from her face and wiped her tears away with his thumbs, his eyes never leaving hers. Then, he pushed her head to his chest, his vision, too, becoming blurry from the tears.

"I've missed you," he whispered into her ears.

Sting could feel her vigorous nodding on his chest and the wetness her tears were bringing to his vest. He pushed her away and tilted her chin. Unable to bear the overwhelming feeling in his chest any further, his lips met hers and they melted into each other's warmth.

Reluctantly, Sting pulled his lips away from hers and murmured, "Have you full recovered?"

"Mostly," Lucy answered, wanting more of his touch. "Nat-Natsu, he was being overly paranoid and h-he doesn't want to-"

"See me?"

Lucy nodded gently, avoiding her boyfriend's eyes.

"I know. I'm only allowed near Fairy Tail when I quit Sabertooth. That's why…" Sting trailed off. This time, it was his turn avoiding Lucy's gaze.

"That's why what?"

"Rogue and I are leaving tomorrow. We'll get everything settled and we'll come back and step into Fairy Tail with our heads high."

"Then why do you sound sad?" Lucy placed her palms onto his cheeks, causing him to look down, into her brown orbs.

"I-this-we might not be able to meet for a while."

Lucy stared at Sting, and droplets of water streamed down her face soon after. She sighed, "I know, I should have expected this."

Clenching her fists, Lucy's gaze stuck onto Sting firmly and she slipped her arms around his waist, "Before you leave, can you give me a memory?"

When Sting did not reply, Lucy took silence as consent and took a deep breath.

"We have until dawn, right?"

Sting nodded quietly, knowing where this was going.

"Will you please take my first time away?"

Sting sucked in his breath, "Are you sure?"

The second Lucy nodded, Sting crashed his lips onto hers and forced his tongue into her mouth. While Lucy was immersed in the envelopment of her lips, Sting carried her towards her bed and set her down gently. While her lips were kept busy, Lucy slipped her boyfriend's vest of his shoulders while Sting made his way under her blouse and trailed along her back to her bra and unhooked it. Lucy let out a small gasp, releasing both their lips. Sting took this chance and placed his lips onto her neck and nibbled lightly while his hands played along Lucy's back. He pushed her back slowly and then pulled her blouse over her. Lucy looked away, blushing at the mere thought of being so exposed to the boy of her dreams. She could feel her skin tingling as his fingertips traced the shape of her body. Suddenly, it stopped and Lucy looked up, only to be pushed down to the bed by the dragon slayer who has been so unexpectedly gentle with her so far.

Her brown orbs met with his blue ones and she saw depths to him that she has never seen before. She took a large breath as she drowned herself into his gentle gaze.

"Do you trust me?" He asked breathlessly.

"Yes, I love you," she murmured, not really answering the question.

"I love you too."

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><p><em><strong><strong>_**I apologize if you were disappointed, I'm going to keep this story PG and I feel embarrassed writing R-rated stuff. If you really want some details...uh...maybe you can search for some mature themed Sticy to satisfy your disappointment? Heh, I'm really sorry, but I really can't bring myself to write such details. Hope you enjoyed the plot though! :D And hope there's not a lot of mistakes! **

**R&R! Thanks! **


	16. I miss you

**Has it really been years since I've written the last chapter? To that, I'm really sorry! I've been taking a break from writing for a very very long while, and personally, I was stuck on this story. Stinglu isn't my OTP, as much as I hate to say it...I'm Nalu all the way. Nevertheless, this story has been really fun to work on, and no, this isn't the last chapter. **

**I'm real sorry that this might be slightly short, but I wanted to quickly post something up for my readers. I really am very thankful for all the support, encouragement and readers despite my long long hiatus. And this, my friends, is my present to you.**

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><p><em><strong>Chapter 15: I miss you<strong>_

Three years. It has been three years since she last saw his silky golden locks and his arrogant smirk. Three years since she touched his carefully sculpted muscles. Three years since his promise to go back to her. Yet, she has always believed.

"Mama, stars!"

The tiny hands of the owner of the voice wrapped around her long slender finger and the chubby arms belonging to the former was raised towards the sky.

"Yes, darling. Do you know what kind of stars are they?" the blonde looked down tenderly.

"L-Lo-Lo," the younger girl attempted to answer her mother despite her limited verbal ability. Finally, she decided that another more efficient method would be better to allow her mother understand what she was trying to say. She put her hands at both sides of her face and curled her fingers.

"Roar!" the girl scrunched her face till her eyes were almost not visible and bared her baby fangs.

Lucy giggled and bent down, placing her free hand on the little girl's head. She ruffled the previously-neatly combed hair which reached to her shoulders. The little girl then pouted at her mother, her puffed-up cheeks slightly tinged pink. A certain stellar spirit would not be happy to see the tangles in the golden curls of the little girl. Ignoring the pout, the Stellar mage shifted her eyes upwards to the vast sky dotted with glittering stars.

"Just like that night. So beautiful," she muttered.

She took her hand away from her daughter's head and placed it on her wrists. Her fingertips tingled as it came into contact with the cold metal of the bracelet. A soft jingle rang through the silence as the bee and the key on the charm bracelet clinked with each other.

"Mama!" her little girl exclaimed loudly as she pointed upwards.

Lucy's head shot up towards the sky and saw a beam of light flying across. A smile formed across her face and she looked down excitedly at her daughter.

"A shooting star! Hurry, make a wish!"

The little girl looked confusedly at her mother, unable to comprehend what she had just said. When she saw her mum squeezing her eyes tight and locked her hands together in front of her chest, she mimicked the actions. The older woman took a deep breath. _I wish he would return back to my side and stay by me forever. _

"What did you wish for, darling?"

"Wish?" the little girl looked up, into tender eyes. Then, her face burst into a smile, "Secret!"

Lucy gave her girl a suspicious look before bending down to tickle the little girl at her sides, "Since when do you keep secrets from me, hmm?"

The little girl squealed as she tried to wriggle out of the older woman's grasp. In between her breath and laughter, she panted out, "Lo-ke said- wish-wishes- must be a- se-cret!"

"Loke said that, huh?"

"Didn't you once tell me that too?"

Lucy looked up at her pink haired best friend and her three other teammates. She stood up, sweeping the grass off her butt while at it.

"Wishes made upon a star are secrets kept between you and the starry sky," Natsu recited as he swept her little girl off the ground and into his arms. "That's what you said."

"You can't go against your own words of wisdom just because you think you ought to know everything about your daughter," Gray Fullbuster chided jokingly.

"Aye!" her blue, flying teammate chimed in as they walked away from the hill towards the train station.

Lucy let out a chuckle, "All right, all right! I give up! Stella, look now, your uncles are ganging up against me!"

"Well then, Stella, if you're not going to tell your mum your wish, why don't you tell Auntie Erza?" the requip mage asked.

Natsu opened his mouth, ready to comment on her request when Erza shot him a glare. He immediately shut his jaws and looked away while patting on Stella's back slightly more quickly.

"It's her first time making a wish since being able to talk. Wouldn't you like to know what she wished for?" Erza explained matter-of-factly.

Lucy shrugged, knowing that nothing she said would change Erza's mind and she didn't want to risk getting a death glare from her.

"So, Stella, tell Auntie Erza what you wished for?" Erza went back asking, her tone completely different from the one that she had taken with her team members.

"Okay!" Stella agreed, but not before adding, "I want a cake!"

"Hey S-Stella!" Lucy sputtered at her daughter's demand.

"Deal," Erza nodded.

"Looks like someone's been babysitting Stella a little too much," Gray whispered. "Juvia was whining about how she didn't get much of a chance to babysit your girl this month."

"You know how it's like with Erza! I've been spending less time with my own daughter as it is! You should tell Juvia to make an appointment with Mira. Apparently, everyone wants to babysit Stella that Mira decided to be her unofficial babysitting agent, and there is a babysitter even when I don't need it!" Lucy whispered back exasperatedly.

She was about to rant further to the ice-make mage when she heard, "Papa!"

"What?" she immediately turned to look at her daughter. "Stella, what did you just say?"

"Papa!"

"What about papa?" Lucy asked even though she knew what was coming. She knew it when she saw Natsu's smile dropped, when Erza suddenly stopped in her steps.

The air around her suddenly became thick and mouth became dry as Erza answered for her, "She wished that," Erza paused, and held Lucy's gaze steadily before continuing hesitantly, "mama would meet papa."

At this moment, Lucy felt her legs turned jelly as someone, probably Gray, hurriedly grabbed her by her arms to hold her up. Her body felt extremely heavy as she continued to slump to the floor. The sounds around her became muffled and her eyes blurred. The last thing she remembered seeing was Happy's look of concern as her hovered around her face before darkness overtook.

Her mind took her back to the time when she woke up with his broad chest beneath her and his muscular arms resting around her waist. She could hear his faint heartbeat as he heaved in his slumber. She could feel the aches in her body, but it didn't matter. She glanced up towards the blonde man whom she had just made love to and moved her fingers traced along the lines of his abs. She knew that this bliss would not last, and thus, she wanted to treasure every moment of it. She was about to remove her fingers when another hand came and intertwined its fingers with hers.

"Morning sunshine," he yawned. He brought his lips down to his girl's forehead.

"Good morning," she raised her head and smiled.

"A very good morning, indeed," he said cheekily. In response, Lucy slapped his chest lightly.

They stayed tangled in each other's embrace for a while before Lucy reluctantly untangled herself and forced herself out of the bed. She heard a groan and giggled to herself.

"I'm going to wash up and prepare breakfast," she informed him as he stretched in the bed.

Within half an hour, the aroma of pancakes and bacon could be smelled throughout the whole room. Sting, who had gone back to sleep, could not help but to be awakened by it.

"Wow," he murmured as he placed his chin on Lucy's shoulders.

Lucy gently shrugged him off, "Go wash up."

Soon, they were done with breakfast, and Lucy knew that the dreaded moment would be anytime soon. Sensing her anxiety, Sting put down his cup of coffee and reached his hands across the table to envelope hers hands in his. As comforting as it was, Lucy still felt her tears welling up in her eyes. Sting's grip tightened.

"Hey, smile for me," he soothed. "You know how much I love your smile."

Lucy nodded but faltered when she saw that the solemnness in Sting's face instead of his smile. "Y-You-," she took a deep breath, "You have something to say."

"I don't know what will happen after today when I leave with my team," he admitted.

"Then don't," she countered quickly.

Sting paused. "You know I can't do that."

The celestial mage winced. She knew that, of course she did. That was the reason for her unsettled feelings during the past few days. She heard from Erza what Natsu had told Sting about stepping into Fairy Tail. Even if Natsu hadn't said that, she knew that the situation wouldn't change. Sting wanted to resolve the issue with his guild. No, he wanted to cut off all ties with that guild that he could not call anyone asides from his team his 'nakama'. The guild that was so ready to hurt his loved ones.

"I know."

The silence ballooned between them. Both knew that the amount of words they have for each other were never-ending, yet neither of them knew how to begin.

"Promise me that you will safely return?"

Lucy waited eagerly for his response as he opened his mouth, before closing them again, and then opening it again.

"I can't promise that, princess."

Lucy's eyes widened. She pulled back her hands away from Sting's and placed them on her lap. Her head stayed down as she forced her tears back. She needed to be strong. This wasn't easy for either of them and she couldn't let Sting leave worrying about her.

"But I, Sting Eucliffe, promise you that I will return to you. No matter what it takes and no matter what happens. You are my one and only love, and the only one I want to be with, so even if I've lost a leg, an arm, or even a body, I will return back to you."

Lucy's head immediately shot up, "Don't say that!"

Sting chuckled, and walked around the kitchen table to reach his girlfriend. His right hand went to the back of Lucy's head and he pushed it forward to place a light peck on her forehead.

Lucy wrapped her arms around Sting's waist and murmured, "I love you too. You are the only one I want to be with."

"That's all I need to know." Then, he separated himself from the other blonde and looked towards the door, "It's time."

Right on cue, the door swung open. Erza Scarlet marched in, glaring at the boy. She immediately softened her look when she saw the glistening eyes of her guild member. Behind her, two dark-haired mages walked in as well.

"Let's go," the stoic shadow mage said, "before your heart starts to waver."

Erza nodded in agreement, "We don't want to risk Natsu sniffing you out or Sabertooth members knowing you are here. I do not want to put Lucy in any risk of danger."

Sting nodded, turning to the ice mage, "Keep her safe."

Gray scoffed in response, "I don't need you to tell me that! Besides, Lucy is fully capable of keeping herself safe." He paused a while before adding, "You too, win this battle."

The side of the blonde dragon slayer's lips pulled upwards to his signature smug smirk, "I'm Sting Eucliffe, the best dragon slayer in the whole of Fiore! I don't think you have anything to worry about."

Lucy burst into a smile. It had been a long time since she saw that sexy smirk of his. An overwhelming feeling grew in her chest. Perhaps her boyfriend's confidence was contagious, but somehow, she had a feeling that everything would work out fine. But still, she needed to give him one last assurance, something that will keep him going when circumstances get difficult. She ran into his chest, "I'll miss you."

They embraced each other as if time had stopped and there were only the two lovers in the room, until Erza cleared her throat. The Sabertooth mages exchanged looks. It was really time to go.

"We won't be sending you off. It's only going to cause more sorrow. But stay safe, and when you return, our doors will be wide open for you, all of you, to call home," Erza smiled.

"Alright, enough of goodbyes, it won't be the last you will see of me!"

"And us!" Lector and Frosch chimed. "The twin dragon slayers of Sabertooth are the undefeated!"

With that, he walked away. Lucy knew it took him every iota of his strength not to look back. Erza and Gray placed their hands on her back. They knew that their precious friend needed all the support that she could get right now.

Before they went back into the room, she thought she had heard Sting's voice in her head, _See you._

That was the last time she saw him.

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><p><strong>Not one of my best chapter, and it might seem really uninspired, or maybe the characters might seem a little OOC, but it was meant to be a soppy chapter. But still, I hope you have enjoyed it! <strong>

**Merry Christmas, everyone! **


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